Earlier in May, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) revealed its 9.3% stake in Zulily. QVC has built an incredible business with a great culture and incredibly similar understanding for bringing entertainment, discovery and value into the daily customer experience. To improve the rate of returning customers Zulily added more products to its site to change however CEO Darrell Cavens said that the company may have gone too in regards to product expansion as customers started to complain that they could no longer search through the site as quickly as usual.
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But the price came in below Zulily’s November 2013 initial public offering at $22 a share.
Zulily’s example may not be terribly comforting, either, to other so-called unicorns – as venture-backed companies that hit $1 billion in valuation are known. Zulily will remain in its home city of Seattle with its current management team.
In connection with the transaction, Mike George is being appointed to the Executive Committee of the Liberty Interactive Board of Directors and will serve on that committee with John Malone and Greg Maffei.
Liberty Interactive stated it will buy Zulily for $ 18.seventy five per share, or $ 9.375 in money and 0.3098 newly issued share of Liberty Interactive for every Zulily share.
Internet retailer that is the favorite of moms and fashionistas, Zulily, was just purchased by TV shopping network QVC for $2.4 billion. Liberty Interactive’s shares are down 1.6 percent, or 49 cents, to trade at $29.77 a share.
QVC will better be able to reach younger shoppers while Zulily hopes to pump up sales growth, which has slowed. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, the statement says.
Zulily’s founding shareholders, representing about 45 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, have agreed to tender all of their shares into the exchange offer.
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Goldman Sachs, which led the 2014 IPO, is the financial adviser to Zulily on the sale. Vadon, who is the company’s chairman, owns roughly 35 million shares, and Cavens, who is the president and CEO, owns about 25 million shares.
