Acquisition

Vente-Privée has acquired Le Petit Ballon, a French ecommerce website that sells wines on a subscription basis. The French shop sells over one million bottles a year and will further boost Vente-Privée's wine sales.

Klarna today announced it acquired BillPay, a German online payment company that's active in several European countries. With the acquisition, Klarna wants to strengthen its position in Europe and further grow in the region.

DPDgroup, the second largest international parcel delivery network in Europe, has taken full control of Wndirect, a global ecommerce parcels company. DPDgroup already was a shareholder in WnDirect for a couple of years, but has now acquired the logistics company.

Berlin-based food delivery company Delivery Hero has acquired Berlin-based food delivery company Foodpanda. And both companies are backed by Rocket Internet. With the deal, the German incubator will increase its Delivery Hero stake to 37.7 percent.

European online furniture store Home24 has acquired Returbo, a German ecommerce company that sells overstock, promotional and second-hand goods and returns. The two companies already worked together since last year, but now Rocket Internet's portfolio company took over Returbo.

Klarna is reported to have made a bid for German payment service BillPay. That company is now owned by Wonga, a major British short-term lender which lending practices have been controversial. Wonga is said to consider the offer Swedish fintech company Klarna has made.

Anders Holch Povlsen, the sole owner of Danish online retailer Bestseller, has invested a double-digit million-euro sum in Miinto Group, a Danish platform that hosts 20,000 brands on one online platform. Most of the investment will be used for creating more awareness and for developing on new digital solutions.

French private-sale group Vente-Privée has again acquired a fashion player in Europe. Yesterday it announced it attained a majority stake in Złote Wyprzedaże, the biggest online shopping club in Poland. With the acquisition, Vente-Privée expands its activities in Eastern Europe.

The Romanian online fashion retailer FashionUP has taken over Click4Fashion, which is active in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary. With the acquisition, FashionUP wants to further expand its business operations in the region. The value of the transaction wasn't disclosed.

The global internet group Naspers Limited has sold 100 percent of its stakes in Allegro Group, which includes online marketplace Allegro.pl and price comparison website Ceneo.pl, to private equity firms Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa. Naspers sold the Poland-based ecommerce group for 3.253 billion dollar (€2.96 billion).

Showroomprivé, an French private fashion sales provider, has acquired Saldi Privati, a subsidiary of the Italian Banzai group. With the acquisition, Showroomprivé becomes the second actor in online private sales in Italy.

Deutsche Post DHL has reached an agreement to buy UK Mail for approximately 242.7 million pounds, or 281.6 million euros. With the acquisition, DHL will further strengthen its position in the European postal market, while putting more pressure on competitor Royal Mail in the United Kingdom.

Vente-privee keeps on expanding in Europe by buying competitive websites that also offer private sales online. The French company now acquired, through its subsidiary Vente-Exclusive.com, the Danish ecommerce website Designers & Friends. With the acquisition, Vente-privee wants to strengthen its position in Scandinavia.

Dutch food-order company Takeaway.com has sold its British website to its competitor Just Eat. The news follows just a few weeks after Takeaway.com acquired the Benelux businesses from Just Eat. Both companies couldn't get a grip of the local market: Takeaway.com had trouble conquering the UK, while its presence was too strong in the Netherlands and Belgium for Just Eat to compete there.

Essilor International, a leading optics company from France, has acquired UK-based online glasses retailer MyOptique. This ecommerce player operates websites across Europe, such as Glasses Direct and SunGlasses Shop in the UK, Lensbest in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands and Lenson in Sweden.