3 in Finance

1/31: TikTok (Singapore/Los Angeles, CA) (Bytedance) has committed to acquire Tokopedia, GoTo’s eCommerce company, in a deal valued at $1.5B to allow TikTok Shop to expand into Indonesia without regulatory roadblocks, giving TikTok access to Tokopedia’s large merchant base, strong logistics/payment assets. (Link)

1/22: Macy’s (Columbus, OH) [NYSE: M], the prominent department store and e-Commerce platform, rejected a $5.8B takeover offer from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, estimated at $21 per share; Macy’s also announced it was laying off 3.5% of its workforce and closing five stores. (Link)

1/4: Fresh2 Group (New York, NY), a B2B eCommerce and supply chain management company serving the restaurant/food industry, acquires Youfood Group, a B2C cross-border eCommerce platform, allowing Asian/South American food resources to the US customer base. (Link)

3 for Fun

Starbucks, the coffeehouse giant, is using AI to generate personalized reward offers to help boost customer visits to the chain. (Link)

FedEx, the multinational conglomerate focused on logistics and transportation, launches new platform “fdx” to provide online merchants with an end-to-end commerce solution; while leveraging FedEx’s prior acquisition of ShopRunner, FedEx aims to challenge Amazon. (Link)

PayPal, the fintech and payment facilitator, rolls out “Fastlane”, a one-click checkout feature with AI personalized recommendations to consumers with cash-back offerings. (Link)

Big movers — month over month stock performance

Hims & Hers Health gains 72%; Rent the Runway gains 67%; Chewy gains 33%

Shopify falls 21%; Carvana falls 18%; Instacart falls 17%