Panasonic Corp will buy U.S. supply-chain software firm Blue Yonder for 700 billion yen ($6.45 billion), in the Japanese electronics firm’s biggest acquisition since 2011, the Nikkei reported on Monday.
Panasonic, which bought a 20% stake in Blue Yonder for 86 billion yen last year, is in the final stages of acquiring the rest of the stock from shareholders including Blackstone Group Inc, the Nikkei said, without saying where it obtained the information.
The Japanese company deepened its partnership with Blue Yonder in May, gaining a seat on its board after acquiring a minority stake. The U.S. company uses machine learning to help companies manage supply chains that connect factories to warehouses and retailers.
Blue Yonder counts companies such as Walmart Inc, Starbucks Corp and Unilever PLC among its customers.
Read more at: Reuters
By Takashi Umekawa, Tim Kelly, Louise Heavens and Mark Potter
