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Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

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Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#221

Post by exclusiv »

djrogers wrote: post #213
exclusiv wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant Jet is a much cooler brand than Walmart. Sure - many millenials haven't heard of it yet, but that's beside the point. Everyone has heard of Walmart but they struggle online. In your anecdote, 30% have brand recall which isn't as bad as you make it seem. The problem with Jet as it currently stands is that it isn't very compelling for word of mouth. I've used it and had a decent experience but never told anyone…

>In your anecdote, 30% have brand recall which isn't as bad as you make it seem. I think you misread the parent - he said that out of 16 employees, 11 were millennials and none of those had 'brand recall' as you insist on calling it.

Oops you are right - I misread the anecdote. My mistake.

Apart from that, I'd bet that most or all of the 11 millenials would say Walmart is probably one of the least exciting, least cool brands they're know.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#222

Post by [deleted] »

sbierwagen wrote: post #101
swalsh wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a cynical person that is an easy thought... but something tells me a 3B acquisition of a company that is losing money in so many places isn't a decision taken lightly. A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here.

A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here. http://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoo-reports-another-big-loss-... Yahoo also reported that it's writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8910999/microsoft-job-cuts-... and the company is writing off $7.6…

[deleted]

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#223

Post by coryfklein »

sbierwagen wrote: post #101
swalsh wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a cynical person that is an easy thought... but something tells me a 3B acquisition of a company that is losing money in so many places isn't a decision taken lightly. A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here.

A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here. http://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoo-reports-another-big-loss-... Yahoo also reported that it's writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8910999/microsoft-job-cuts-... and the company is writing off $7.6…

It seems you're pointing out the obvious: that no investment 100% guarantees any sort of return. Surely "the math" discussed internally at Walmart includes both:

1) A calculation of risk/reward on this investment

2) Determining whether result of 1 appropriately reflects Walmart's risk profile.

Given that Walmart decided to acquire, it is safe to assume this investment's risk of loss falls within Walmart's investment profile.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#224

Post by exclusiv »

kafkaesq wrote: post #219
exclusiv wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jet.com is a disaster of a company fundamentally. However, it does make sense for a company like Walmart. I don't know about 3B, but Jet is a drastically cooler brand for them in their ecommerce battle esp. among millenials. Jet was previously fulfilling many orders from Walmart and now they can build a seamless integration to deliver competitively priced items quickly from the stores.

Jet.com is a disaster of a company fundamentally. How so?

They don't have any margins. When a consumer buys a product on their site - they have employees purchase from retailers or suppliers and ship.

So they've been eating the cost of shipping and overhead with no margins and have zero loyalty because they don't really have a unique value proposition.

They failed with their initial subscription model. They say they can keep costs low with their technology and rewards based shopping but they haven't proven anything.

It gets better with Walmart though - now they have a supplier and distribution hub that has great relationships with countless vendors.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#225

Post by mark-r »

sbierwagen wrote: post #101
swalsh wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a cynical person that is an easy thought... but something tells me a 3B acquisition of a company that is losing money in so many places isn't a decision taken lightly. A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here.

A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here. http://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoo-reports-another-big-loss-... Yahoo also reported that it's writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8910999/microsoft-job-cuts-... and the company is writing off $7.6…

My own observation is that the bets hardly ever pay off. Microsoft/Nokia is a great example but there are plenty of others. Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but I have trouble thinking of one counter example.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#226

Post by gggggg11111 »

rpgmaker wrote: post #205
camelNotation wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart has something Jet.com needs: one of the world's most advanced product delivery systems. Every Wal-Mart store is a distribution center waiting to happen. They are enormous and they are everywhere. Jet.com has something Wal-Mart can use to rocket its online presence forward: advanced online infrastructure, patents, a wealth of technology experts, and users. Together, Wal-Mart can beat Amazon at its own game by…

I hope it works out for them. Amazon's age it's showing, their site it's clunky and unresponsive at times. Sellers misrepresent their wares all the time. They're outright banning some products which, for a store, it's a very opinionated move if you ask me. And don't give me the "the Apple Store doesn't carry the Fire" crap, Amazon bills itself as the "everything store". It works sure and customer service it's still m…

Amazon closes customer accounts left right and center too, good luck getting thru to anyone human then despite being a decade long customer with thousands of digital purchases going poof.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#227

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

camelNotation wrote: post #154
rogerdpack wrote: post #92

I figured out what is going on here. Walmart thinks to themselves "we want to be like amazon, we want to be huge online" and then jet comes along and is something of an almost competitor to amazon, so corporate thinks "oh we should snap this up" but...my gut reaction here is this is going to be a terrible deal for walmart, what are they going to do, keep dumping $500M/yr for it at a loss or what? Pretty desperate, bu…

Walmart has something Jet.com needs: one of the world's most advanced product delivery systems. Every Wal-Mart store is a distribution center waiting to happen. They are enormous and they are everywhere. Jet.com has something Wal-Mart can use to rocket its online presence forward: advanced online infrastructure, patents, a wealth of technology experts, and users. Together, Wal-Mart can beat Amazon at its own game by…

Wal-Mart's delivery system is tuned to service a few thousand stores plus whatever scraps walmart.com takes in. It remains to be seen if they can use Jet to their advantage or destroy it by borgifying their management with Wal-Mart graybeards.

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#228

Post by ak4g »

gggggg11111 wrote: post #226
rpgmaker wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope it works out for them. Amazon's age it's showing, their site it's clunky and unresponsive at times. Sellers misrepresent their wares all the time. They're outright banning some products which, for a store, it's a very opinionated move if you ask me. And don't give me the "the Apple Store doesn't carry the Fire" crap, Amazon bills itself as the "everything store". It works sure and customer service it's still m…

Amazon closes customer accounts left right and center too, good luck getting thru to anyone human then despite being a decade long customer with thousands of digital purchases going poof.

Can you give me any pointers on where I can find out more about this?

(Also curious about the banned product lines if anyone can summarize/link to what's going on there.)

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#229

Post by chaostheory »

camelNotation wrote: post #154
rogerdpack wrote: post #92

I figured out what is going on here. Walmart thinks to themselves "we want to be like amazon, we want to be huge online" and then jet comes along and is something of an almost competitor to amazon, so corporate thinks "oh we should snap this up" but...my gut reaction here is this is going to be a terrible deal for walmart, what are they going to do, keep dumping $500M/yr for it at a loss or what? Pretty desperate, bu…

Walmart has something Jet.com needs: one of the world's most advanced product delivery systems. Every Wal-Mart store is a distribution center waiting to happen. They are enormous and they are everywhere. Jet.com has something Wal-Mart can use to rocket its online presence forward: advanced online infrastructure, patents, a wealth of technology experts, and users. Together, Wal-Mart can beat Amazon at its own game by…

Jet also has something else that Walmart doesn't have: a better reputation. It doesn't hurt that Jet's founder also used to work for Amazon as well and he has a track record with founding and running Quidsi (Diapers.com, etc...)

Re: Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash

#230

Post by hayksaakian »

mark-r wrote: post #225
sbierwagen wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A public company like Walmart, there's some people doing some math here. http://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoo-reports-another-big-loss-... Yahoo also reported that it's writing down $482 million in charges related to the declining value of Tumblr, the social-blogging service that Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013. http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8910999/microsoft-job-cuts-... and the company is writing off $7.6…

My own observation is that the bets hardly ever pay off. Microsoft/Nokia is a great example but there are plenty of others. Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but I have trouble thinking of one counter example.

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