Acquisition

Strategic investor VDD SAS has acquired Pixmania, the French ecommerce retailer that was previously owned by Mutares. This German company bought Pixmania in 2013 during a repositioning process with the goal to sell the company again when it has shown clear operational improvement. Pixmania is now part of a company that also owns and runs French online store Vente Du Diable.

Supermarket chain J Sainsbury disclosed yesterday that a 1 billion pounds bid for Home Retail, owner of retailer Argos, was rejected two months ago. It's now thinking about making a formal offer. With the desired acquisition of Home Retail, which also owns Homebase, Sainsbury's wants to fight the competition of online ecommerce giant Amazon and discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi.

Private-equity firm Carlyle will acquire Dutch lingerie retailer Hunkemöller from PAI Partners. Capital for the purchase will come from the European-focused buyout fund Carlyle Europe Partners IV. The value of the transaction is not disclosed, but is probably around 440 million euros.

UK-based technology company Ve Interactive has acquired the Display Retargeting business from eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions, a recently launched independent company. Now Ve has a client base of more than 10,000 online businesses. All employees from the eBay Enterprise Display Retargeting business will be retained.

Royal Mail has announced it acquired eCourier, a same day delivery company that operates mainly in the Greater London area, although offering nationwide distribution. Royal Mail already has Royal Mail Sameday, but by combining eCourier and its existing courier business, the British postal service company can become a significant player in the UK same day delivery market.

Lightspeed POS, a point-of-sale platform for retailers and restaurants, today announced the acquisition of Dutch ecommerce software company SEOshop. As part of this acquisition, Lightspeed launches its new ecommerce platform, called Lightspeed eCom.

Quotient has announced it acquired Shopmium, a French mobile cash-back app that's similar to ibotta and Checkout51. With the acquisition, Quotient has a new way to reach customers through their mobile devices. And of course, by incorporating Shopmium, Quotient now also has more data in house so it could better personalize and target media and promotions.

ACI Worldwide has announced it acquired German ecommerce payments solutions provider PAY.ON. The global provider of e-payment and banking solutions acquired 100 percent of PAY.ON's equity in a combination of cash and stock. PAY.ON is now being valued at 180 million euros.

Docdata, a Dutch company that’s specialized in e-fulfilment, return logistics and online payment services, has sold its ecommerce arm to the American company Ingram Micro for 175 million dollars (€153.4 million). Docdata claims becoming part of Ingram will give the company the necessary scale to compete with other ecommerce service providers.

The Dutch telecom retail chains Dixons, MyCom and iCentre are saved. Their previous owner BAS Group was declared bankrupt, but the retail chains will continue to operate under new owner Relevant Holdings. Now 30 Dixons stores, 22 MyCom stores and 24 iCentre stores as well as their online stores will continue selling items such as white goods, telecom products and IT devices.

Vente-privee.com has acquired a majority stake in its Belgian competitor Vente-exclusive.com. The Belgian stakeholders will keep the remaining 49.9%. They will lead and support the further development of the website, which offers daily sales with discounts of 30% to 70% off the retail price.

CCC, which is the market leader in the Polish footwear retail industry, has entered the local ecommerce market after acquiring Eobuwie.pl for approximately 30 million euros. Eubowie.pl is Poland's biggest online shoe store.

Online optical retailer MyOptique Group is expanding its presence in Europe. It acquired German rival 4care and the UK-based online eyewear retailer Eyewearbrands. Earlier this year, MyOptique Group acquired Netzoptiker, another eyewear retailer from Germany. According to the company, it's on track to delivery €100 million sales across Europe this year, with over three million eyewear customers served online.

The Adlibris Group has acquired Odla.nu, the biggest gardening website in Sweden. With the acquisition the Adlibris Group continues to grow, while slowly moving away from the books it once started selling. The Adlibris Group's websites are increasingly about customers sharing their passion.

Private equity investment group Apax Partners has acquired RFS Holland Holding, the owner of Dutch online retail stores Wehkamp.nl, Fonq and Create2Fit. The British company paid about 450 million euros for the acquisition.