Now it’s official, Walmart is going to buy Jet.com in the largest e-commerce deal in history.
Walmart will pay about $3 billion in cash plus about $300 million of Walmart shares for the two-year-old e-commerce site.
Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, said in a statement that Walmart is looking for ways to lower prices, broaden our assortment and offer the simplest, easiest shopping experience because that's what our customers want.
Jet.com's CEO and cofounder, Marc Lore, will continue to play a key role at the company, according to CNBC. He owns about a quarter of Jet.com and could make as much as $750 million from the deal, according to Recode.
"The combination of Walmart's retail expertise, purchasing scale, sourcing capabilities, distribution footprint, and digital assets - together with the team, technology and business we have built here at Jet – will allow us to deliver more value to customers," Lore said in the statement.
The deal should help boost Walmart's online business, which has struggled to gain much traction against Amazon, the market leader. Walmart has generated about $14 billion in annual e-commerce sales, compared with Amazon's $99 billion in annual revenue.
Jet.com, which has raised more than $500 million, has tried to position itself as an Amazon competitor, reportedly having set a goal to become a $40 billion company within five years. It was last valued at about $1 billion.
