WalMart Buys Jet.com for 3 Billion +300 Million In Stock
10Jesus. This is just mind-boggling to me.
Jet.com launched about a year ago and WalMart just bought them for 3 billion PLUS 300 million in shares for top brass at Jet.
A company that started just over a year ago. Sold. For 3 BILLION DOLLARS.
Holy crap. I really, really got into the wrong business.
But seriously, how can it be valued at that much? I know WalMart is buying it just to have the online infrastructure and all but how can that infrastructure be valued that high?
Are people starting to get that turned off Amazon that an alternative can have that much potential even before it’s remotely proven?
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/08/confirmed-walmart-buys-jet-com-for-3b-in-cash/
- 18 comments, 13 replies
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Looking forward to their new company—boat.com—in a few years.
@hollboll or maybe bloat.com ?
@hollboll cow.com is for sale
Weird. I always assumed Jet.com basically flopped, since they quickly gave up on their club pricing thing and I haven’t heard much about them since then. The couple times I had a look at them they weren’t significantly better than Amazon in either price or selection. Seems hard to imagine they’ll somehow end up with 3 billion of value out of it, but who knows.
@Starblind After the initial discount offers I haven’t found anything worthwhile. Simply said, they sucked.
So all I need to do is make a convoluted, semi-confusing site, that makes it tough to know if you are getting the best deal that they offer? I can do that for a year for a few billion.
Just need probably around 500 million of funding to get it started. Any volunteers?
You know it’s bad when Walmart is starting to look like the lesser evil in retailing.
@narfcake Uggh, Walmart is already trying to do their own Amazon marketplace thing on their own and it’s nothing but frustrating. It’s impossible to tell if my local Walmart store (there as a last resort or if I can’t get something on Prime) actually carries the product that I’m looking for. If I search for scooter batteries I get 300 results from people selling “through” Walmart.com.
I tried shopping Jet against my Amazon orders… they just didn’t have the breadth of inventory and I was typically unable to find what I was looking for. Maybe with the Walmart/Sams Club warehouses behind the site, it will be more competitive.
I’m sure all of Jet.com’s collective heads exploded in purple dust. Sheesh.
So, it looks like the guy who won the contest to bring in the most new people could end up with a nice payday: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-08/jet-com-contest-winner-feels-good-after-3-3-billion-deal
@dashcloud
Damn smart move on his part.
@dashcloud $18,000 investment turned into $40,000,000+.
its not just about the company, its about Marc Lore.
In 2010, walmart and amazon were bidding on diapers.com (a company that marc lore started and ran) . walmart offered $550,000,000 , amazon offered a bit more and amazon ended up owning diapers.com
fast forward to 2016, amazon is making more and more money quarter after quarter, walmart.com is NOT GROWING, and sales at walmart.com are shrinking for the past couple quarters.
so walmart is now paying $3,300,000,000 for jet.com AND for Marc Lore to work on improving walmart.com
@communist
I’m sure he’ll be so happy at WM.
@f00l
This is probably a good time for Target.com to consider acquiring another 3-letter-domain company that has some experience selling successful e-commerce sites to amazon.
Unrelated suggestion: All VMP members get 10 shares of meh.com
Yeah that’s a wow!
I wonder if WM will be able to figure out what to do with it.
Jet made a pretty huge launch, and has serious MBA skills and interesting ideas. Online wholesale club. WM has experience in that area.
@f00l Except they ditched the club idea pdq since no one was signing up except for those of us they offered free memberships to.
You know I actually have an opinion on this matter. Fuck Jet.com. I worked for these slave drivers for 3 months. Busted my ass and heard 1000 promises about how my great job is going to advance so far in this company. Until one week when they decide my efforts do not deserve pay… then another… and finally once more. So me being the disgruntled, payless employee, decided. To walk into hr for the 100th time and express how I feel… I was escorted out in police custody. This was at the beginning of the year and still have yet to see those paychecks. With all this being said maybe Wal-Mart’s infrastructure will help make sure no employee goes through the same bull stuff.
@boredashell
Wow
I sincerely hope you reported them to the govt wage and hour poeple, who are reputed not to take kindly to this.
And then perhaps a little talk w the NYT or WSJ?
@f00l I attempted a couple of separate times and several different routes. Apparently they tweaked my hours to match what they had recorded paying me to cover up the fact that they ever made a mistake. My last attempt was Fox problem solvers. They basically told me I’m boned
@boredashell
I don’t know anyone who has ever tried reporting deliberate wage/hour violations. But I understand that falsifying hours is also rather a big deal.
But then, I once worked with a large co that clipped everyone by about 5-10 min daily using labyrinthine rules. Never made a fuss, figured it was hopeless.
This is what happens when you don’t send me stickers.
I tried buying something from Jet.com once.
My order was cancelled and account closed immediately without any explanation. I guess it was flagged by their fraud system? I tried contacting support to clear things up but just got responses from a couple “Jet Heads” who couldn’t tell me anything or put me in contact with anyone who had any power to do anything. I tried ordering again through another account, but (somewhat sensibly for a related account, at least) they closed that account too.
At that point I just figured they didn’t really want my business.
I’ve actually been a pretty satisfied customer of Jet, and have found their prices and delivery to be excellent as long as I stick to buying just what I need. Also, it’s been GREAT having an alternative to the bloodsucking Walton clan, and Bezos the megalomaniac, who treats your personal information as if it’s his property. So, it’s with a heavy heart that I’ll end up NOT buying anything else from Jet once the deal closes, because I don’t want to give Walmart a DIME (let alone start having to pay sales tax, since I doubt the govt will let them get around that wall).
has anyone here bought anything off jet??? not me… i looked at their site a few times… there was nothing great about it… not great prices on items… or cool stuff. just like regular shit that i could buy for less somewhere else. nothing special about it at all… to me, this is for sure funky… did some legal separate subsidiary of wallmart, launch jet.com?? and now they can bring it into the wallmart home with lots of tax breaks and such??? alright, i’m done… lol
I have used Jet.com a few times, especially since I was one of the first people to sign up so I got free shipping for a year (that year is up in a few days). The prices were similar to Amazon and it is neat how items in your cart get lower as you add items and if you optionally refuse to return the items.
@frmorrison oh crap… I had the free year of shipping too, have never been back to the site, nevermind ordered anything…
Never bought from jet.com. in the start was intrigued, but just found the place irritating, and heard about way fucked CS. Decided to wait and see.
Guess I waited and saw.