Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is set to acquire twoyearold online retailer
Jet.com in what appears to be the largestever acquisition of an ecommerce
company, according to multiple sources familiar with the transaction.
The deal is expected to value Jet at right around $3 billion, according to these people.
Some senior Jet executives, including cofounder and CEO Marc Lore, will have
incentive bonuses on top of that.
Lore will continue to run Jet as well as Walmart’s U.S. ecommerce operations after
the acquisition closes.
Walmart is expected to announce the blockbuster transaction on Monday, barring any
lastminute hiccups. Bloomberg reported Saturday the two sides were trying to finalize
the deal as early as this Monday.
Walmart and Jet declined to comment.
For Walmart, the purchase marks a giant bet on a largely unproven startup that only
launched its shopping site widely last July. Up to now, the largest U.S. ecommerce
acquisition was last year’s $2.4 billion sale of Zulily, a public company, to QVC.
The Jet acquisition is an acknowledgement by Walmart CEO Doug McMillon that his
company needs outside help if it’s going to ever close the giant gap with Amazon. It’s
still unclear whether that is the right strategy for the brickandmortar retailer.
Lore spoke about battling Amazon on Recode Decode last December: