---
title: "Walmart Reportedly to Sell Yihaodian to JD.com; Both Sides Decline to Comment"
description: "Walmart, which just held its global shareholders' meeting, is rumored to be in advanced talks to sell its e-commerce platform Yihaodian to JD.com for over 40 billion yuan. Other potential buyers include Alibaba and HNA Group, but JD.com's progress is swift. Both Walmart and JD.com declined to comment, but sources suggest clarity may come next week."
author: "乐琰 赵陈婷"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-06-18"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/walmart-reportedly-to-sell-yihaodian-to-jd-com-both-sides-decline-to-com-494f7797.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/x2ye7dle9gHWcLR4leQMRw"
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# Walmart Reportedly to Sell Yihaodian to JD.com; Both Sides Decline to Comment

> Walmart, which just held its global shareholders' meeting, is rumored to be in advanced talks to sell its e-commerce platform Yihaodian to JD.com for over 40 billion yuan. Other potential buyers include Alibaba and HNA Group, but JD.com's progress is swift. Both Walmart and JD.com declined to comment, but sources suggest clarity may come next week.

Walmart, which just held its global shareholders' meeting, was rumored on June 18 to be making a major capital move—according to sources, JD.com is in talks to acquire Walmart's Yihaodian, with negotiations in advanced stages and a transaction value exceeding 40 billion yuan. Further rumors suggest that besides JD.com, Alibaba and HNA Group also appear interested in acquiring Yihaodian from Walmart, causing negotiations to become tense. However, JD.com's acquisition of Yihaodian is progressing rapidly, and the two parties may be in the late stages of talks.
Regarding these rumors, a Yicai reporter contacted Walmart and JD.com on June 18, and both declined to comment. However, a source close to the matter told Yicai that the situation may become clearer next week.
**How Will Walmart Play in E-commerce?**
It is understood that in March 2008, Yu Gang and Liu Junling founded Yihaodian. In 2010, Ping An acquired 80% of Yihaodian for 80 million yuan. By 2012, Walmart increased its investment in Yihaodian, raising its stake to about 51%, becoming the largest shareholder. Later, Yihaodian founder and chairman Yu Gang and other senior executives left the company.
Walmart was not satisfied with just a controlling stake; subsequently, it acquired the remaining shares, fully owning the e-commerce company. At that time, Walmart appointed Wang Lu as President and CEO of Global E-commerce Asia, with responsibilities including leading Yihaodian.
However, after Walmart "took over" Yihaodian, its e-commerce business in China seemed to make little progress.
A source close to the matter told Yicai that Walmart's e-commerce business in the Chinese market is divided into three segments: Walmart e-commerce, Yihaodian, and Sam's Club. Sam's Club operates very independently, while Walmart e-commerce and Yihaodian have partial cooperation, such as joint procurement and logistics for certain products.
"You know, Walmart is traditionally a brick-and-mortar retailer, and its product management and philosophy are quite different from Yihaodian, which is purely e-commerce. The integration is very difficult, and often they operate relatively independently," the source admitted.
Under these circumstances, Walmart's e-commerce business in China has not been very smooth, and the investment has been enormous. Therefore, some analysts believe it is understandable if Walmart really wants to sell Yihaodian.
At the same time, e-commerce is a business segment that Walmart values highly in the future.
At the just-concluded Walmart global shareholders' meeting, Walmart Asia President and CEO Scott Price told Yicai in an exclusive interview that the retail industry in China has great potential, especially in cross-border e-commerce. Walmart will further expand in the Chinese market, introduce more overseas products, and hopes to create more "best-sellers" to seize the "buy buy buy" opportunity in China.
As for how Walmart will develop e-commerce in China in the future, there seem to be multiple possibilities, and Walmart officially has not given a clear statement, declining to comment on the rumors.
**Is JD.com Interested?**
According to the rumors, JD.com may acquire Yihaodian, which would complement its supermarket FMCG categories, Shanghai market, and fresh produce business.
In response, JD.com, busy with its 618 promotion, told Yicai today that it would not comment.
Li Chengdong, former Tencent and JD.com strategic analyst, directly questioned the news on his WeChat Moments, stating that the "real" news might be that Alibaba will acquire Yihaodian, because he cannot see any practical value for JD.com in acquiring Yihaodian, which has retreated to Shanghai.
Notably, Li Chengdong also posted screenshots of his chat with other peers on WeChat Moments. In the chat, he said that JD.com's acquisition of Yihaodian has no value at all; it is completely homogeneous business. Furthermore, Li used the example of Yixun, which was acquired by JD.com and then "left to fend for itself," to illustrate that the 400 billion yuan price is "a lion's mouth," and it is "impossible to waste money and people to fight against its own 3C business."
Although JD.com began strengthening mergers and acquisitions after its 2014 IPO, in terms of investment scale, JD.com has always been "restrained."
Last year, JD.com invested 4.3 billion yuan in Yonghui Superstores for deep cooperation in the O2O field, which was already a rare "big move" in JD.com's investment history, but this 4.3 billion yuan is insignificant compared to the rumored 400 billion yuan transaction.
Interestingly, besides rumors of JD.com's involvement, there are also reports that HNA Group is interested in acquiring Yihaodian from Walmart, causing negotiations to become tense. However, JD.com's acquisition of Yihaodian is progressing rapidly, and the two parties may be in the late stages of talks. As of the time of writing, none of the companies involved have given an official statement.
To this end, Ebrun contacted both parties. JD.com said "no comment," and senior executives at Yihaodian said they had not heard of the matter, but many industry insiders believe the news is not baseless.
**Ebrun has compiled multiple viewpoints as follows:**
(1) Walmart has long intended to sell Yihaodian and has had contact with JD.com, but its willingness to sell is stronger than JD.com's willingness to take over; the news was released before JD.com's 618, possibly for publicity.
(2) Yihaodian may have hit a bottleneck, but Walmart's desire to sell to JD.com is not for funds; there is a possibility of deep cooperation through share swaps in the future.
(3) To compete with other e-commerce platforms' online supermarkets, JD.com may join forces with Yihaodian.
(4) In expanding beyond 3C categories, JD.com has cooperated with Yonghui in fresh produce, and its general merchandise is improving. If it continues to expand FMCG products, Yihaodian would be a good choice.
(5) 400 billion is in line with the acquisition premium based on Yihaodian's 26 billion yuan transaction volume last year, but it is not a small amount for JD.com, so a share swap is more likely.
Financial reports show that JD.com's total transaction volume in the first quarter of 2016 was 129.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55%. First-quarter net revenue was 54 billion yuan, up 47.3% year-on-year, with an operating loss of 864.9 million yuan, compared to an operating loss of 822.6 million yuan in the same period last year.
Additionally, industry insiders believe that companies typically announce major acquisitions, personnel changes, and organizational restructuring when releasing financial reports. Therefore, if this acquisition is completed, JD.com may announce it in August when it releases its half-year financial report.
According to data, in July 2015, Walmart announced full ownership of Yihaodian. Shortly after, Yihaodian co-founders Yu Gang, Liu Junling, CTO Han Jun, and other founding team members and executives left. In August 2015, JD.com invested 4.3 billion yuan in Yonghui Superstores, reaching cooperation in the O2O field.
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