PriceMinister founder wants to buy back platform from Rakuten

The founder of French online marketplace PriceMinister, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, has announced that he is preparing a takeover bid for Rakuten France. This Japanese company acquired the French platform in 2010. This will mean a return to his former company, sixteen years after selling it.

PriceMinister was a French online marketplace, which was known for its secondhand offer in books. It sold used books, catalogs, comics, manga and titles that were difficult to find in bookstores. It became a large platform in the French ecommerce market, and dethroned eBay for several years. In 2010, it was acquired by the Japanese Rakuten Group for 200 million euros.

Operating losses between 10 and 15 million euros

Last month, Rakuten France announced that it is looking for a buyer. In the last decade, traffic has decreased 42 percent and the amount of active customers has fallen by 33 percent. According to French newspaper L’Informé, Rakuten France has a revenue of around 50 million euros, with a sales volume of approximately 370 million euros. Its operating losses are between 10 and 15 million euros.

Return to former brand identity

If no buyer is found, the platform said that it will start closing down in the third quarter of the year. Now, the founder of PriceMinister, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, has expressed an interest in acquiring the platform. He is preparing a bid along with investment fund Verdoso and Fabien Versavau, who headed Rakuten France from 2018 to 2024.

Kosciusko-Morizet, investment fund Verdoso and Fabien Versavau want to give prominence to peer-to-peer sales

Reportedly, they are considering reviving the PriceMinister brand, which was completely disbanded in 2018, replaced by Rakuten. They also want to give a greater prominence to peer-to-peer sales, which brings back the platform’s original identity. The current professional sellers of the Rakuten platform will also be part of the new version.

Other interested parties

It seems that there are more interested parties. Several names have been mentioned, including Casino (Cdiscount’s parent company), Carrefour, Pixmania, and Back Market. No sale has been finalized yet, so it remains to be seen what will happen to Rakuten France.