Rumours that eBay is looking to buy Wadi.com for US $150-million
According to reports, eBay is considering buying UAE-based Wadi.com for US $150-million.
The US e-commerce giant eBay.com may be looking to follow Amazon into the Middle East’s online retail market if rumours on Twitter are to be believed.
According to Omar Kassim, the founder of UAE e-commerce platform JadoPado, which was acquired by noon.com in April 2017, there are “strong rumblings that eBay is taking a long hard look wadi as their entry into the region.”
This was according to a Twitter post in September. According to that same post, eBay had valued wadi.com at US $150-million.
Wadi.com and eBay have declined to comment, although a spokesperson for Wadi.com did not deny the rumours and in an email to ASC.com said “nothing has been confirmed”.
The move by eBay, if confirmed, would mirror Amazon’s entry into the Middle East e-commerce sector through its half-billion dollar acquisition of Souq.com.
Wadi.com is the second largest online retailer in the region after Souq.com, with existing infrastructure and last mile fulfilment systems in place, giving eBay a strong footing on which to compete with Amazon.
“To ensure that all our deliveries are hassle-free and timely, we have warehouses and distribution centres across the KSA and UAE,” says Kanwal Sarfraz, one of three co-founders of Wadi.com. “Today we process more than one million SKUs per month and have a large network of our own delivery system for better customer experience across these cities run by more than 150 delivery vans and drivers.”
Sarfraz was speaking to Logistics Middle East, the print version of ArabianSupplyChain.com, about a separate matter, prior to the reports above coming to light. A spokesperson for Sarfraz declined to comment.
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