Sep 25th - Rakuten invests £25M to acquire Play.com

A Japanese internet service company is buying e-commerce website Play.com – which employs 200 people in Histon, Cambridge

Rakuten is paying £25 million for the Jersey-based firm, which has a total of 500 staff, including the people at Vision Park, Histon.

It’s the company’s third acquisition in Europe – it bought French e-commerce pioneer PriceMinister last year and German online shopping mall Tadoria earlier this year.

It now operates e-commerce businesses in 10 countries around the world, including Japan.

“The UK market is one of Europe’s largest and most mature e-commerce markets,” said Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and chief executive of Rakuten.

“Play.com is not only a pioneer in the market but also one of the UK’s most successful e-commerce businesses.

“We aim to leverage our e-commerce strength and experience to further expand and develop Play.com’s business model and channel its loyal user base, merchants and deep product offerings into Rakuten’s global e-commerce network.”