Investment · Software
Panasonic buys 20% of supply-chain software firm Blue Yonder for about $800 million
- Investor
- Panasonic (Osaka)
- In
- Blue Yonder (20%), Scottsdale, Arizona
- Value
- About $800M (about ¥86B)
- Status
- Completed in July 2020. Panasonic bought the remaining 80% in 2021.
- Date
- 2020-05-20
Panasonic bought a 20% minority stake in Blue Yonder from its private equity owners in a deal that valued the company at an enterprise value of $5.5 billion, and took one board seat. Owner New Mountain Capital kept most of its holding and Blackstone kept all of its stake. The two companies already ran a joint venture in Japan, set up in 2019.
Why it matters
The stake was a first step: within a year Panasonic agreed to buy all of Blue Yonder, moving from hardware toward software for factories, warehouses and stores.
About Blue Yonder
Blue Yonder, formerly JDA Software, is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Its software helps more than 3,300 manufacturers, retailers and logistics companies plan supply, run warehouses and fill orders.
How the sale worked
It was a secondary sale: Panasonic bought existing shares from the owners rather than new shares from the company, so the money went to the sellers.
The next step
When Panasonic agreed in 2021 to buy the rest of the company, the deal valued Blue Yonder at about $7.1 billion, well above the $5.5 billion set a year earlier.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
