Walmart Investing $153M in Rakuten for 1% Stake

Walmart is investing $153 million for 0.9% of Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce company announced Friday. It's “in line with other recent strategic equity investments the company has made that enable Walmart to benefit from future growth in a rapidly changing global retail environment,” said Walmart. Also planning to invest are Tencent (a 3.6% stake) and Japan Post Holdings (8.3%), it said. Citing evolving “new lifestyles,” Rakuten said businesses that operate retail stores such as supermarkets are now “required to provide services that are more convenient for users, not only providing services online, but also transcending the boundaries between online and offline (real stores) and driving a retail revolution in which consumption and marketing are changing dramatically.” Having stable logistics services has become a “pressing issue,” due to higher delivery volumes and labor shortages that have resulted in “multiple redeliveries,” it said. Rakuten is further collaborating with Japan Post. In 2018, the two companies launched a pickup service through post offices and via Japan Post’s home delivery lockers. They announced a plan to form a strategic logistics partnership for data sharing in December.