Panasonic acquires remaining 80% stakes of Blue Yonder for $5.6 bn

April 23, 2021: Panasonic Corporation announced that it has agreed to acquire Blue Yonder, the leading end-to-end, digital fulfilment platform provider, by purchase the remaining 80 percent of shares of Blue Yonder for $5.6 billion, adding to the 20 percent which Panasonic acquired in July 2020.

Including repayment of outstanding debt, the additional investment totals $7.1 billion, valuing Blue Yonder at $8.5 billion. The deal is intended to close by the second half of this fiscal year and is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals.

This acquisition builds on the Panasonic/Blue Yonder strategic relationship, established in January 2019 with a partnership, followed by the creation of a joint venture company in Japan in November 2019. In July 2020, Panasonic took a 20 percent minority ownership stake and one seat on the Board of Directors of Blue Yonder. This acquisition brings the strategic relationship full circle.

The need for more intelligent, autonomous and edge-aware supply chains has been dramatically heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise of e-commerce and the proliferation of data.

“This acquisition strengthens Panasonic’s portfolio and accelerates the companies’ shared autonomous supply chain mission, empowering customers to optimize their supply chains using the combined power of AI/ML and IoT and edge devices. By unifying supply, demand and commerce solutions with IoT and edge technologies, companies can better utilize predictive business insights to pivot their operations in real-time,” reads the release.

Combining Panasonic’s strength in industrial engineering, IoT and edge technologies with Blue Yonder’s AI/ML-driven supply chain and commerce solutions greatly intensifies the customer value of Blue Yonder’s leading digital fulfilment platform. Together, Panasonic and Blue Yonder will deliver a unique competitive advantage for customers to drive more automation and actionable, real-time business insights that reduce waste and improve operations while creating a more sustainable world.

Blue Yonder is a supply chain industry leader, providing an end-to-end platform driven by AI/ML that serves as a “system of intelligence” for its global retail, manufacturing and logistics customers. Its cloud-based Luminate platform seamlessly manages all nodes of the supply chain across planning, execution and commerce on one unified platform.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, the total company revenue was over USD1 billion, 67 percent of which was recurring revenue. As of December 31, 2020, SaaS annual recurring revenue was $343 million and SaaS net revenue retention rate was 120 percent.

This acquisition enhances Panasonic’s own digital transformation and customer-centric focus. On April 1, 2022, the Panasonic Group will shift to a holding company system concentrating management resources on strategic businesses in key areas such as providing supply chain innovation and automation.

Yasuyuki Higuchi is the CEO of Panasonic’s Connected Solutions Company (to become Panasonic Connect Co., Ltd. on April 1, 2022) which leads this business area. Blue Yonder CEO Girish Rishi and the extended leadership team will join the new organization and the Blue Yonder brand will be retained and the business will function within the Panasonic Connected Solutions Company umbrella.

Panasonic CEO Yuki Kusumi said, “There are still many such losses and stagnation in supply chain operations, so through the drastic reduction of wasted labour and resources, we would like to provide better ways of working, and contribute to customers’ management reform and also to the realization of a sustainable society by carefully using limited global resources. I am confident that by combining the power of Blue Yonder and Panasonic, we can create innovation in global supply chains."

Girish Rishi, CEO of Blue Yonder stated, “We have developed mutual trust and have a shared vision for an autonomous supply chain that delivers a better life and a better world. As the essential platform for essential times, we are relentlessly focused on fulfilling our customers’ potential.”

Peter Masucci, managing director of New Mountain Capital, said, “We first began building Blue Yonder over 10 years ago, and the company has grown significantly since then. We’re proud to have supported the company’s transformation into the world’s leading end-to-end, digital fulfilment platform provider.”

Martin Brand, senior managing director of Blackstone, said “We are proud to have partnered with New Mountain Capital and Panasonic to support Girish and his team in their transformation of Blue Yonder into the supply chain SaaS leader through accelerated investment in innovation and machine learning capabilities.”