Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B • Hacker News Board

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#111

Post by cm3 » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

systems wrote: post #103

cm3 wrote: post #77

Does the sale mean F# is having its WhatsApp (Erlang) moment, in other words major industry validation?

well, I didn't know whatsapp uses erlang until now and I think it didn't really help make erlang more popular for me I believe it was couchdb that brought erlang to light .. but now it seems erlang isn't really getting any more popular but yea, of course being used by whatsapp is very strong validation for erlang

Erlang has been and is in use in many less visible places, same as other frameworks, but WhatsApp provided visibility in the contemporary world of short-lived startups.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#112

Post by ctb_mg » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

I propose that Walmart needs to use their bulk purchasing power/clout, in combination with the efficiencies that Amazon has put in place, to provide lower prices. If you're going to unseat Amazon, it has to be on price.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#113

Post by nostromo » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:33 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #98

brianbreslin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart has already spent close to $12B funding walmart.com/labs and not made a dent in catching Amazon. Jet has a super smart team looking at ways to gain margins in areas amazon is ignoring. short term their investors won't appreciate this buy.

> Jet has a super smart team They might be smart but they haven't been successful. They almost immediately abandoned their original value proposition-- make money on the subscriptions like Costco and break even on sales.

If pivoting means you're not smart, HN would be the stupidest place on the internet.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#114

Post by kenrikm » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:40 PM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #105

zd4akaq85a wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you are claiming that if a company raised $570M and sold for $3B, the common shareholders will get screwed? Do you have some information we don't? The publicly reported valuation at the last funding round was $1.4B. Those would have to be some impossibly harsh terms to not leave well over $1B to the common shareholders.

> "Those would have to be some impossibly harsh terms" Harsh terms yes, but not uncommon. Preferred shares are common for investors that pay out at a multiple of the common shares, so in an exit the preferred pool can be paid at a dramatically higher rate than common shares. Funding often also comes with guarantees on return - i.e., if the exit price is below a threshold, the investor gets a guaranteed minimum return…

Even if the terms ate up 2.9B of the 3B an engineer with 1 point will still walk away with close to a million. I don't buy it.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#115

Post by Splendor » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:40 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #113

paulcole wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jet has a super smart team They might be smart but they haven't been successful. They almost immediately abandoned their original value proposition-- make money on the subscriptions like Costco and break even on sales.

If pivoting means you're not smart, HN would be the stupidest place on the internet.

I think the point was the lack of success, not smarts.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#116

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:43 PM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #43

While this is a definite failure for Jet's optimistic investors, it's likely a great opportunity for Wal-Mart to challenge Amazon, and a win for consumers. It's also a big win for OCaml. I tried shopping at Jet and while some of the prices were very good, others were worse than Amazon, and little things like product detail information, pictures, etc., were strongly subpar. Product search was also in serious need of t…

[deleted]

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#117

Post by abc_lisper » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:44 PM UTC

WTF is Jet.com? I have never heard of it, why is it worth 3B if it is not common knowledge!! Sigh!

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#118

Post by CodeSheikh » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:51 PM UTC

Wal-Mart should focus on getting rid of (transition) its old mentality management and try spending top dollar on hiring top talent from the industry. I happened to work with Wal-Mart tech teams and their hands are tied by stubborn warehouse-manual-gears mindset of upper management. Basically our company had a nightmarish experience when we were integrating our services product with their internal tech products.

All of these companies (Walmart, Bestbuy etc) are trying to compete with Amazon by offering things like price match etc. Sure it is nice to have a price match from Bestbuy and pick up your product on the same day from Bestbuy. But Amazon came back with a KO punch and offered Same-Day/One-Day shipping. I can basically order it before midnight of the previous day and have it at my doors by max 7pm the next day. Amazon has successfully created a concept of brand among household consumers. They are the Apple of household consumerism and most people don't want to buy from uncool brands. When I search for a product on Google shopping and if the price is same on Amazon and Walmart, I would pick Amazon because of "PRIME" shipping. Even if it is $1 cheaper on Walamrt I would still go for Amazon. Brand loyalty can't be bought with $3B. Brand loyalty needs to be created at grass root level.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#119

Post by sremani » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:53 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #96

brianbreslin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart has already spent close to $12B funding walmart.com/labs and not made a dent in catching Amazon. Jet has a super smart team looking at ways to gain margins in areas amazon is ignoring. short term their investors won't appreciate this buy.

> Jet has a super smart team looking at ways to gain margins in areas amazon is ignoring So does Walmart Labs, though. What makes Jet a better buy? Even if they've proven successful as their own company I'm super-skeptical of any startup merging with a larger organisation and retaining anywhere near 100% efficiency.

One of the way forward I see is that, Walmart will let Jet be Jet but will the major source of the products etc. Mostly growing from the back-end of it. Enabling things like same day delivery in certain instances. I would actually let Walmart groom Jet as a separate brand.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#120

Post by nlh » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

Whoa whoa whoa stop the clock ;)

Before everyone gets up in a big frenzy on the price, read the article (closely):

"It isn’t clear how much Wal-Mart would pay, but a person familiar with the matter said Jet could be valued at up to $3 billion in private markets."

That is nowhere near a statement that $3B is number from Wal-Mart. That means "someone" thinks they COULD be valued at UP TO $3B in "private markets". That "someone" could be Jet's CEO. Or their banker.

Wal-Mart isn't dumb. In fact, they're the opposite of dumb when it comes to paying for things. They wouldn't pay $3B for a failed ecommerce startup if they can let it fail and buy the assets or pay much, much less in various other scenarios.

I doubt we'll see this deal go for anywhere close to $3B, if it happens at all. This is likely a negotaition tactic to drum up interest (and/or the price) from other potential acquirers.