IAC/InterActive to acquire ShoeBuy.com
IAC/InterActiveCorp, which has a growing appetite for acquiring online retailers in promising niches, is purchasing ShoeBuy.com Inc. Terms of the deal weren’t released, but ShoeBuy will become a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC/InterActive, which in March 2005 acquired Cornerstone Brands Inc.
ShoeBuy co-founder and CEO Scott Savitz and other key executives will remain and continue to run ShoeBuy, Savitz says. IAC/InterActive and ShoeBuy will make a good strategic fit. “In the end, we were impressed with how IAC/InterActive is able to reach a lot of consumers in various online retail segments,” Savitz tells InternetRetailer.com. “Both companies will have a good synergy.”
IAC/InterActive, which also owns and operates HSN.com and various Cornerstone Brand web sites such as BallardDesigns.com, FrontGate.com, GarnetHill.com, ImprovementsCatalog.com, SmithandNoble.com, TerritoryAhead.com, TravelSmith.com, HomeFocusCatalog.com and Alsto.com, is actively making online retail acquisitions because it sees business-to-consumer e-commerce as a market with higher growth margins than TV retailing.
For instance, the acquisition of ShoeBuy gives IAC/InterActive the chance to leverage and grow an online retail company that carries more than 300,000 products from over 250 manufacturers. ShoeBuy, No. 120 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites is also diversifying. ShoeBuy recently launched BagsBuy.com as a sister e-commerce site with an inventory of 5,000 SKUs. “We’ve been able to succeed in a niche where only a few have really made it because we have inventory and brand relationships that customers like,” Savitz says.
Savitz says he expects the deal with IAC/InterActive to close quickly. When the deal is complete, ShoeBuy will join IAC/InterActive‘s retailing group. IAC/InterActive executive vice president and chief financial officer and CEO of its retail unit Thomas J. McInerney will give the keynote address at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition in an educational session titled Taking E-Retailing to the Next Level .
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