Subscribe RSSJapan`s Rakuten agrees to buy Buy.com for $250 million
Japanese Internet marketplace big-time operator Rakuten Inc. today announced it has reached an agreement to purchase online general merchandise retailer Buy.com for $250 million.
Buy.com, No. 32 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Lodestar , says it has more than 12 million customers. The retailer sells directly to consumers, and operates a marketplace that it says accounted for 46% of its fourth territory orders. The retailer sells in Canada, France, Germany and the U.K.
Rakuten operates Rakuten Ichiba, a Japanese marketplace that combines shopping and entertainment and focuses on mortal merchants developing relationships with shoppers.
Rakuten also owns the New York City-based LinkShare affiliate network, which it bought in 2005. But the acquirement of Buy.com will give Rakuten its first major direct-to-consumer platform in the U.S. Rakuten says the combined company will offer consumers more than 60 million products from not quite
