By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Liberty Interactive Corp, owner of QVC home-shopping service, has agreed to acquire Zulily Inc. for a hefty $2.4 billion price tag.
Zulily targets young mothers through offering daily flash sales of items, and adds a younger clientele and personalized offers to the QVC network, according to Bloomberg. While Zulily initially saw soaring stock prices, it has experienced a 66 percent drop over the past year.
Co-founder Darrell Cavens will remain president and CEO of Zulily after the sale. Zulily will continue to operate as a separate brand.
Liberty Media said QVC and Zulily will have numerous areas to collaborate: The e-commerce player will be able to tap into QVC’s global scale, vendor relationships and video commerce expertise, while QVC will get a boost from Zulily’s younger-skewing customer demo and personalization and e-commerce capabilities.
Zulily’s business “fits perfectly with the QVC philosophy,” Greg Maffei, Liberty Interactive president and CEO, said in announcing the deal. “Combined under Liberty, we have an incredible opportunity to delight shoppers from the TV to the Internet.”
With the addition of Zulily, QVC Group will have an annual run rate of approximately $5 billion in e-commerce revenue. In 2014, Zulily reported $1.4 billion in revenue and net income of $14.9 million.
“QVC has built an amazing business with a great culture and incredibly similar understanding for bringing entertainment, discovery and value into the daily customer experience,” Darrell Cavens, president and CEO of Zulily, said in a statement. “This combination under Liberty is about investing in our future and providing a tremendous opportunity to accelerate our platform for growth of the Zulily brand through the partnership with QVC.”
QVC CEO Mike George added, “In Zulily, we see a like-minded brand that shares our passion for discovering great products, for delivering honest value, and for building long-term relationships with customers. Our teams are committed to learning from and inspiring each other and leveraging our platforms in new ways to accelerate growth, serve our customers better, and realize the full potential of both of these extraordinary brands.”
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