| Amazon wants to own the whole picture in retail. Also, Walmart limps behind. That and more in The Daily Crunch for June 16, 2017. 1. Amazon is buying Whole Foods Amazon has been trying to figure out groceries for a long, long time now. So it makes perfect sense that it would acquire a company that has already done a pretty good job tackling the problem. The acquisition will be worth $13.7 billion in an all-cash deal once it goes through, and will give Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos a range of retail locations in prime urban areas from which to add bricks to its clicks. 
2. Meanwhile, Walmart buys some more online expertise The long-rumored Walmart/Bonobos deal also got real today, as the retailer purchased the custom clothier for $310 million. Walmart is trying to keep up with Bezos and Co. by buying e-commerce players, but Whole Foods is a better acquisition than Bonobos on balance in terms of strategic value. 3. Slack raising new round, also seeing interest from Amazon regarding acquisition Slack is in talks to raise another $500 million, according to Recode, and it's also seeing some acquisition interest from Amazon. Sure, why not buy both physical grocery stores and enterprise communication platforms? Synergize that stuff. 4. Apple makes some key original content hires Apple may have liked what it saw with the debut of its show Planet of the Apps – it hired two key content leaders reporting to Eddie Cue today. If Apple ends up having a slate of original shows, that could change its business dramatically. 5. Alibaba could invest in Uber rival Grab International Uber rivals continue to be emboldened by the ride hailing startup's troubles. Now, Southeast Asia's Grab looks like it could get a big investment and huge partner via Grab. That would be a significant vote of confidence. 6. Chinese bike sharing startup raises $600 million to grow globally Mobike, the Chinese bike sharing startup that was among the first to offer dockless, on-demand bike rentals at scale, has raised $600 million and now hopes to expand globally, with the goal of being in 200 new cities around the world by end of year. First up: Manchester, UK, where it's hoping to debut by the end of the month. 7. Driving and charging simultaneously could change everything The ability to drive and charge at the same time has big potential. Imagine being able to drive forever without the need to stop for power-ups. That's the possibility contained in this first test by Qualcomm on its wireless Halo charging system. It's a long way from that vision, but imagine that future. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment