PetSmart acquiring Chewy for $3.35 billion; Where will that leave Pet360?

Tom Paine

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PetSmart is acquiring Florida-based Chewy.com for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition ever. Notably $50 million more than Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com.

PetSmart made a relatively small bet on ecommerce when it bought Plymouth Meeting-based Pet360 for $130 million plus incentives less than three years ago. This is obviously a much bigger bet.

Pet360 still has a fair number of people in Plymouth Meeting; it will be interesting to see how they fare.

PetSmart's release on the Chewy acquisition makes no mention of Pet360. I've seen no mention of it in any discussions of the Chewy deal.

I asked PetSmart if it had any comment on the role of Pet360 once the Chewy deal was completed, and a spokesperson said that was not something PetSmart would comment on.

In late March, Pet360 took a seven year lease on space for 20 near Grand Central Station NYC.

Mark Vadon, who sold Zulily to Liberty Media / QVC for $2.4 billion, was also behind the Chewy deal as an early investor and chairman.

Meanwhile, Pet360's former CEO Brock Weatherup has gone over to the other side, having sold his latest startup, PetCoach, to Petco and moved to San Diego to work with them as EVP, Strategic Innovation and Digital Experience.

Chewy has a fulfillment center in Mechanicsburg PA.

Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney

Tom Paine

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Verizon CEO Lowell C. McAdam / Verizon Website

Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney (Bloomberg)

Verizon CEO said he may be interested in merger with Disney, Comcast or CBS (CNBC)

McAdam told Bloomberg, "If Brian [Roberts] came knocking on the door, I'd have a discussion with him about it."


Market Values (equity)

VZ $201.6bn
CMCSA $178.2bn
DIS $180.6bn


Does Mr McAdam have a strategy in mind? Comcast, Disney, & CBS would each lead to very different outcomes. Although the one common denominator seems to be a major network.

But its difficult to tell whether McAdam wants a 5G-centric strategy, a content-centric strategy, or both.

Verizon doesn't hold all the cards; As you can see from the above numbers, a Verizon merger between either Comcast or Disney would essentially be a marriage of equals.

The analysts I've followed are mostly unconvinced of the logic of a Verizon / Comcast combination in order to achieve 5G.

And any such merger, in the remote possibility it might happen, would have to maintain at least two significant broadband competitors.

Updates as warranted.

Comcast has not responded to McAdam's comments.

This IBD article might be helpful in comparing relative values of Comcast and Verizon.

Verizon's earnings are due out tomorrow morning.

Verizon CFO: McAdam's M&A commentstaken out of context (Deadline)

4/19: IBM sinks; IntegriChain acquires MontCo firm

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IBM Is Still Not Reaping Rewards from its Big Bets
(Fortune)

IBM Sinks Following 'Lackluster Performance' With Q1 Results, Analyst Cuts (IBD)


Center City health tech company [ IntegriChain] acquires MontCo firm following major investment (Philadelphia Business Journal)








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Pai Praises Verizon Fiber Buy (Multichannel News)

Broadband Dominance A Better Stock Play Than Wireless: SunTrust (IBD)

‘Delco Proper’ gets series pilot order from Comedy Central, will film locally in May (Philly.com)

Zulily co-founder Mark Vadon strikes e-commerce gold yet again as pet supply retailer Chewy sells for $3.35B
(GeekWire)
Vadon sold Zulily to QVC.

Inside info: U.S. chases 'Unknown Traders (Philly Deals)

How Many Data Centers Needed World-Wide (Perspectives)
In case you were wondering.
The author is a Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services.

Amazon cloud chief jabs Oracle: 'Customers are sick of it' (CNBC)