Wave of acquisitions shakes up e-commerce, companies are strengthening

Wave of acquisitions shakes up e-commerce

Nielsen is close to buying Ebit consultancy, specializing in e-commerce. Webmotors, the largest Brazilian site for buying and selling cars, acquires the Loop auctioneer. Nielsen is close to buying Busbit’s Ebit consultancy, strengthening its business in e-commerce. The operation was approved this week, without restrictions, by Cade (Administrative Council of Economic Defense). Last year, news had circulated that Buscapé was negotiating the consultancy for about R $ 5 million.

At the time, it was speculated that WPP and GfK also evaluated the asset. Industry sources told Estado de Minas that the brand and influence of Ebit are probably larger than the value of the business. Purchased by Buscapé around 2006, Ebit is the most traditional e-commerce consultancy in Brazil. Perhaps the biggest asset of the company is the Webshoppers report, which since 2001 monitors sales volume, number of buyers and categories of products marketed in Brazilian e-commerce.

Mail can not charge more than 8% in service to e-commerce companies Ebit also carries out bespoke market intelligence studies and certification of virtual stores, used as a quality seal by consumers. “The operation represents a good opportunity for the Nielsen Group to expand its research and information business in the e-commerce market, as well as enter into the virtual store certification business in Brazil,” Nielsen told Cade.

“The resulting portfolio will have depth and breadth to increase competition and deliver greater benefits to consumers.” In its opinion, Cade estimates that the two companies will have a little more than 20% market share, both in unionized surveys – that deal with the entire market and are monetized by subscription, without exclusivity by a single customer – as in “ad hoc” searches, as they are called ones made to order. For Cade, the existence of large competitors – such as Euromonitor, WPP / Ibope, Ipsos, GfK, Vox Populi and Accera – ensures competition in the industry.

Nielsen’s investement was not the only business shaking Brazilian e-commerce in recent days. Webmotors, which owns Banco Santander Brazil, bought 51% of Loop, a subsidiary of Estapar that promotes a used car auction, mainly for fleet owners.

The operation joins Webmotors – the largest Brazilian automobile buying and selling site, with 25 million accesses per month – to a company that benefits from the physical presence and capillarity of Estapar, which operates more than 400 thousand jobs in about 1,000 parking lots. Webmotors is making a capital increase in the Loop, diluting Estapar, which will continue with 49% of the capital. The transaction will be submitted to Cade and the Central Bank. The Loop organizes auctions for quick sale.

Sellers are usually companies that operate with fleets or banks that have taken over vehicles. As the cost of equity is high, they agree to sell the car at a discount from the market price, provided the sale is expedited. Buyers are usually resellers who want to rebuild the stock and pass it on. To do this, Loop does the so-called ‘remarketing’: before starting the auction, it receives the car in the yard, does inspection, document checking and sanitation, leaving everything ready for the buyer. More than 60% of sales are made online, but there are face-to-face events in the courtyards of Mogi das Cruzes (SP) and Uberlândia (MG).

For Webmotors, it’s about entering a niche. The company sells cars both from individuals and from registered dealers, but has not yet operated in the auction market (Santander, which controls the company, acts as the preferred funder in sales of the site.) For Estapar, the transaction is yet another way to monetize your parking lots, which serve as a yard to receive and complete the sale of these vehicles.

Estapar joined Loop as a minority partner in 2014, when the company arrived in Brazil at the hands of BCA, an English company that makes more than US $ 2 billion. WTorre was also a minority. In March of last year, Estapar took over, buying part of WTorre and half of BCA’s shares.

Source: Information contained in this post was disclosed by BlogSpot