Walmart Finalizes Massive $3.3 Billion Acquisition of Jet.com

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, announced on Monday that its long-awaited acquisition of e-commerce startup Jet.com has officially been finalized after receiving regulatory approval. For the hefty sum of $3.3 billion, Walmart can now enjoy access to Jet.com’s loyal consumer base, savvy e-marketing tactics, and the e-commerce acumen of Jet CEO Marc Lore, who will take his managerial talents to Walmart.com.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon took to Instagram to celebrate the deal, posting a photo of his Jet.com T-shirt. McMillon hailed the acquisition, noting that it would pave the way for the two companies to collaborate in order to improve consumers’ shopping experiences: “Walmart and Jet.com obsess about saving customers time and money. By joining forces, we’ll be better at doing both, creating seamless shopping from app to site to store.”

The acquisition, which was the largest for an online startup according to Reuters, also includes Jet.com’s innovative pricing software, which allows the retailer to lower prices as customers add more items to their cart. All in all, McMillon believes the move will do much to augment Walmart’s online infrastructure and website, which is currently the second largest online retailer in the U.S. Walmart.com’s catalogue currently boasts an expansive assortment of 15 million items, a figure which continues to grow by a million with each passing month.

Successfully bridging the gap between Walmart’s brick-and-mortar and online operations is a tall order, but a vital one for the Arkansas-based company. The gorilla in the room is Amazon, the online retailing giant that continues to vacuum up market share each year, while Walmart’s e-commerce operations have flagged.

For the past five years, Walmart has been on a startup acquisition spree, having thus far purchased 15 companies to narrow the tech and talent gap with Amazon.