Pitney Bowes Pays $395 Million to Acquire Borderfree
The Internet is an interesting place to do business because it is constantly changing and evolving. Ecommerce businesses often solicit the help of third-party vendors to take care of their shipping, logistics, currency conversion, merchant services, fulfillment, and many other aspects of their business so they can stay competitive in the market. As such, businesses that provide these cross-border ecommerce services are highly valuable and attractive acquisition targets.
In December, FedEx announced that they would acquire Bongo and UPS announced that they would acquire i-parcel LLC. These were both moves to make FedEx and UPS more appealing as third-party vendors to ecommerce businesses. Pitney Bowes is making a similar move. At the beginning of May, Pitney Bowes announced that they would acquire Borderfree for $395 million.
Borderfree is a third-party vendor that works with businesses large and small in the U.S. and U.K. to provide a variety of ecommerce services. Their biggest service offering is fulfillment. Major clients such as Macy’s Inc., Sears Holding Corp., Nordstrom Inc., and HSN Inc. have worked with Borderfree.
Pitney Bowes is most widely recognized as the maker of postage meters. Teaming up with Borderfree is a strategic business move that will help them expand. Pitney Bowes can help ecommerce sites display shipping costs and custom fees for foreign consumers, as well as facilitate overseas shipments.
President and CEO of Pitney Bowes Marc B. Lautenbach said, “The acquisition of Borderfree not only makes sense for our clients, it accelerates our strategic vision to grow our company through expansion of our digital commerce businesses. The combination of Borderfree’s cross-border ecommerce capabilities with our own solutions expands our portfolio offerings and extends our global reach.”
Borderfree has 253 employees around the world. Pitney Bowes plans to utilize these individuals to draw on the resources of Borderfree. The acquisition places Pitney Bowes in a good position to succeed in the ecommerce service market.
Global Procurement & Supply Chain Professionals Read This…
…Carefully curated procurement & supply chain issues that make you look smart, sent to your inbox every week.
PLUS: Get the FREE Procurement Case Study when you subscribe: “How McDonald’s Overcame Global Supply Chain Obstacles”
