Japanese Online Retail Giant Acquires Brazilian E-Commerce Company

Japanese online retail giant Rakuten is expanding its reach to South America with the acquisition of a 75% stake in Ikeda, a provider of e-commerce services to many of Brazil’s largest retailers (Financial terms of the deal not disclosed yet).

About Rakuten

• Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Tokyo
• Rakuten provides a variety of consumer and business-focused services including e-commerce, travel, banking, securities, credit card and e-money solutions.
• Rakuten boasts operations throughout Asia, Western Europe and North America and has over 10,000 employees worldwide.
• The company recently teamed up with Baidu to invest $50 million in an online ‘B2B2C’ shopping mall for Chinese Internet users, acquired Buy.com for $250 million and subsequently spent the exact same amount purchasing France’s PriceMinister.

About Ikeda

• Founded in 1996 and headquartered in São Paulo, 
• Ikeda provides retailers with a SaaS e-commerce platform
• Enables its customers to help build their desired features 
• Provides advisory services to support customers' online retail operations.
• Ikeda currently provides services to over 100 major retailers located all over Brazil.

Why this deal:

• Forrester forecasts the e-commerce industry in Brazil to grow at 18% annually, with total sales expected to reach approximately $22 billion by 2016.
• For Rakuten, it’s a way to expand into South America rapidly.