Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is pressing on with its plans for the North American e-commerce market after it confirmed that it has acquired Ebates, a major online retailer in the US, in a $1 billion deal.
The deal has been speculated earlier this week, and it will see Rakuten acquire 100 percent of Ebates. Rakuten founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said that “the combination of Rakuten and Ebates is entirely unique and will revolutionize e-commerce.” The market didn’t appear to agree with that assessment on Monday, when Rakuten’s share price dropped 4 percent based on the rumors.
Rakuten — which previously bought Western online retailers Buy.com and Play.com — says Ebates’ members spent more than $2.2 billion on its business last year.
Update: Ebates does not own Shopping.com as we initially reported. Apologies for any confusion.
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