
Zulily's $2.4B acquisition is a disappointment - pavornyoh
http://recode.net/2015/08/22/why-the-largest-e-commerce-acquisition-ever-is-actually-a-disappointment/
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srunni
_E-Commerce is a Bear_ , by Andy Dunn (CEO of Bonobos) is fantastic:
[https://medium.com/@dunn/e-commerce-is-a-
bear-d233f02d52a5](https://medium.com/@dunn/e-commerce-is-a-bear-d233f02d52a5)

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pbreit
IMO, Zulilly was headed towards $0 so this is a crazy outrageously terrific
exit, if you asked me.

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baus
Zulily's customers ultimately wanted the pricing discounts that Zulily's model
provided combined with Amazon's service. That's probably impossible to do
profitably.

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pcunite
Amazon, Newegg, and Wal-Mart .... you can't be one of them cheaply, but you
can be niche. Stay there, enjoy it.

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adventured
The biggest surprise survivor to me has been Overstock.com

I don't think I've purchased anything from them in nearly a decade. Someone is
buying from them however, sales have gone from $1.1b in 2012 to $1.5b for
2015, and they've been modestly profitable the last three years (so the
business is likely fully self-sustaining). They also have no debt.

~~~
schwabacher
I just moved and ended up ordering a lot of furniture from them because they
have better prices and are easier to search (for furniture) than Amazon.

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venomsnake
Is there any billion dollar acquisition outside of youtube, that has not been
disappointment?

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codemac
Yes - many? Is that a serious question?

[http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2010/20101115-01.htm](http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2010/20101115-01.htm)

[http://www.zdnet.com/article/cisco-finalises-ironport-
acquis...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/cisco-finalises-ironport-
acquisition/#)! (almost)

There are many more, those are the only ones that I have personal knowledge
of.

~~~
venomsnake
It would have been better to give the follow up of how products and companies
evolved under the new ownership. And if they ended money making endeavors.

~~~
codemac
Well -- search for "data domain". They make back their purchase price within 2
years of acquisition (and now making it back again almost every year).

[http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/02/24/emc-and-data-
domain-...](http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/02/24/emc-and-data-domain-a-
profitable-decision/)

My post was meant to encourage the OP to actually research acquisitions, as
typing into ddg.gg "billion dollar acquisitions" returns results littered with
successes.

