Rakuten, a Japan e-commerce group with a growing interest in internet sales-based logistics services, is acquiring US-based Webgistix, a logistics and services company that specialises in in fulfillment technology for e-commerce retailers. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, nor was a press announcement available on either company’s web site at the time of writing.
Set up in 2001, Webgistix offers a service to e-commerce companies to manage their supply chains with software for order fulfillment, freight management and shipment optimisation.
The business is profitable and has only raised one round of undisclosed funding in its history from outside investors. The acquisition also marks Rakuten’s second foreign logistics investment.
Rakuten already has operations in the US,namely its acquisition of Buy.com, now called Rakuten.com, which makes the latest Webgistix deal strategic. The technology trade press are already labelling the deal as Rakuten’s answer to Amazon Prime, a membership-based one…
