Walmart buying Hoboken-based e-commerce firm Jet.com for more than 3B

Meg Fry//August 8, 2016//

Walmart buying Hoboken-based e-commerce firm Jet.com for more than 3B

Meg Fry//August 8, 2016//

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Nearly $3 billion in cash to grow one’s brand? Jet.com will take it. Wal-Mart Stores has agreed to acquire the Hoboken-based online retailer in order to expand the e-commerce growth and customer reach of its Walmart brand, Doug McMillion, CEO and president of Wal-Mart Stores, said in a statement.Wal-Mart Stores has agreed to acquire the Hoboken-based online retailer — which charges bulk-size prices for individual-size purchases — in order to expand the e-commerce growth and customer reach of its Walmart brand, Doug McMillion, CEO and president of Wal-Mart Stores, said in a statement.

“We’re looking for ways to lower prices, broaden our assortment and offer the simplest, easiest shopping experience because that’s what our customers want,” McMillion said. “We believe the acquisition of Jet accelerates our progress across these priorities.

“Walmart.com will grow faster, the seamless shopping experience we’re pursuing will happen quicker and we’ll enable the Jet brand to be even more successful in a shorter period of time. Our customers will win. It’s another jolt of entrepreneurial spirit being injected into Walmart.”

Jet.com, one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the U.S., utilizes innovative technology to reward customers in real time with savings on items derived from reduced supply-chain and logistics costs when they purchase and ship items from over 2,400 retailer and brand partners together.

Led by CEO Marc Lore and fellow co-founders Mike Hanrahan and Nate Faust — who previously worked together to co-found and lead Quidsi, the parent company of e-commerce sites Diapers.com, Soap.com and Wag.com — Jet.com adds more than 400,000 new shoppers every month and processes an average of 25,000 orders a day.

“We started Jet with the vision of creating a new shopping experience,” Lore said in a statement for Walmart. “Today, I couldn’t be more excited that we will be joining with Walmart to help fuel the realization of that vision. The combination of Walmart’s retail expertise, purchasing scale, sourcing capabilities, distribution footprint and digital assets — together with the team, technology and business we have built here at Jet — will allow us to deliver more value to customers.”

Walmart and Jet will maintain distinct brands while leveraging technology solutions from both companies to develop new offerings, such as additional capabilities on the Walmart app, site and in stores.

A portion of the $3 billion cash payment will be paid over time, in addition to $300 million in Walmart shares.

The approved acquisition is expected to close at the end of this year.