WEST CHESTER, Pa., Aug. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- QVC, the
global leader in video and ecommerce retail, today announced
that its parent, Liberty Interactive Corporation ("Liberty
Interactive") (Nasdaq: QVCA, QVCB, LVNTA, LVNTB) has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire zulily, inc. ("zulily") (Nasdaq:
ZU), a leading ecommerce site serving millennial moms and the
digital-only generation, for approximately $2.4 billion. Under the proposed transaction,
zulily will join the QVC Group to create a discovery-driven and
experiential digital commerce powerhouse with appeal that spans
generations of women.
Since its inception in 2010, zulily has emerged as a destination
brand for millions of millennial customers, becoming one of the few
retailers in history to exceed $1
billion in annual net sales in five years. Today, zulily
brings young moms special finds every day, through desktop, mobile
websites and mobile apps that feature a curated, constantly
changing collection, spanning apparel, fashion accessories,
children's apparel, home decor, toys, gifts and more. With a vast
network of 10,000 vendor partners, zulily offers thousands of new
products every day from entrepreneurs and top brands, all at
compelling values. Approximately 56 percent of its orders are
placed over mobile devices.
Together, the QVC and zulily platforms represent combined annual
revenues of more than $10 billion and
230 million units shipped globally to 19 million customers in 85
countries. Highly-complementary customer bases span generations of
women, offering both companies the opportunity to extend their
businesses beyond their respective core audiences. Adding zulily to
the QVC Group allows QVC to reach an audience of young mothers who
love to shop, and to accelerate its mobile leadership.
"QVC and zulily share a passion for creating a unique shopping
experience that is rooted in discovery and brings carefully curated
products to life. Together, we will further engage modern women who
love to shop in new and compelling ways," said Mike George, President and CEO, QVC, Inc. "As
online shopping evolves, this partnership brings together two
high-performing and highly-complementary leaders in ecommerce. We
look forward to welcoming the talented zulily team to the QVC Group
as our shared values and beliefs create an incredibly strong
foundation for us to collaborate across all aspects of the business
and transform how we serve customers in new, digital-first
ways."
"zulily and QVC are two distinctive customer centric brands that
are passionate about delivering an exceptional shopping experience
and surprising and delighting our customers, each and every day.
There are tremendous opportunities to accelerate the growth of the
zulily brand for our customers, our employees, and our vendors with
QVC's partnership," said Darrell
Cavens, President and CEO, zulily, Inc. "Together, zulily
and QVC have complementary philosophies about our approach to
entertaining and engaging our customers and we'll now have the
ability to unlock synergies for growth and deliver new ways to
innovate on the discovery commerce model and change the way people
shop."
While each company will maintain its distinctive and powerful
brand identity, this transaction will enable both businesses to
expand their product lineup, brand portfolio, and vendor network in
order to bring new, exciting experiences and value to their
customers. Through zulily, QVC will have access to additional
platforms to market its unique assortment, from Today's Special
Value to exclusive proprietary brands. QVC's expertise and
resources in attractive categories like Beauty, Home Decor and
Apparel Special Sizes will enable zulily to expand its category
offerings, and expose its customers to a distinctive shopping
experience through joint on-air and online programming events.
Additionally, both companies will be positioned to thrive
through intelligent cross-marketing to a combined customer base of
19 million and millions more email prospects, leveraging QVC's deep
expertise in analytics and zulily's powerful personalization
tools.
QVC will look to leverage zulily's technologies, which use
historical and real-time data to customize offerings for millions
of customer touch points every day, to enhance customer engagement.
QVC also sees opportunities to utilize zulily's extraordinarily
agile and efficient digital content production system. Meanwhile,
zulily will explore incorporating QVC's deep video expertise, as
well as its flexible customer finance systems, to enhance its
shopping experience, and unlock incremental demand on its own
platforms.
With live programming broadcasting to nine countries on three
continents, QVC remains focused on global growth, reflected in the
August 2015 launch of QVC France. QVC
sees opportunities to further accelerate zulily's international
growth through its local market knowledge, vendor relationships and
platforms.
Together under the QVC Group, zulily and QVC will be able to
leverage their combined scale, capabilities and customer bases to
accelerate each company's sales and deliver cost savings by
leveraging their combined purchasing volumes.
In connection with the transaction, Mike
George is being appointed to the Executive Committee of the
Liberty Interactive Board of Directors and will serve on that
committee with John Malone, Chairman
of the Board of Liberty Interactive, and Greg Maffei, President and CEO, Liberty Interactive. Darrell Cavens will report directly to Mike and
the other members of the Executive Committee.
Following the close of the transaction, QVC and zulily will
operate under a management structure that enables each company to
remain focused on its respective business, yet facilitates close
collaboration to drive benefits across the combined organization.
zulily's President and CEO, Darrell
Cavens, will continue to lead the business, and the rest of
zulily's senior management team, which has been instrumental in the
success of the company, will remain in place and continue to report
to him. zulily Chairman and co-founder Mark
Vadon will join the Board of Liberty Interactive and provide
strategic counsel and support to the companies.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth
quarter of 2015, subject to regulatory approval and other
conditions.
About QVC
QVC, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Interactive
Corporation (NASDAQ: QVCA, QVCB), is the world's leading video and
ecommerce retailer. QVC is committed to providing its customers
with thousands of the most innovative and contemporary beauty,
fashion, jewelry and home products. Its programming is distributed
to approximately 340 million homes worldwide through operations in
the U.S., Japan, Germany, United
Kingdom, Italy,
France and a joint venture in
China. Based in West Chester, Pa. and founded in 1986, QVC has
evolved from a TV shopping company to a leading ecommerce and
mobile commerce retailer. The company's website, QVC.com, is ranked
among the top general merchant Internet sites. QVC, Q, and the Q
Ribbon Logo are registered service marks of ER Marks, Inc.
About zulily inc.
zulily (http://www.zulily.com) is a
retailer obsessed with bringing customers special finds every
day—all at incredible prices. zulily features an always-fresh
curated collection for the whole family, including clothing, shoes,
home decor, toys, gifts and more. Unique products from
up-and-coming brands are featured alongside favorites from top
brands, giving customers something new to discover each morning.
zulily was launched in 2010 and is headquartered in Seattle. zulily's shares are traded on the
NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol ZU.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes
certain forward-looking statements, including statements about the
proposed acquisition of zulily by Liberty Interactive, the
realization of estimated synergies and benefits from the proposed
acquisition, business strategies, market potential, future
financial prospects, new services and offerings, and other matters
that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements
involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by
such statements, including, without limitation, the satisfaction of
conditions to the proposed acquisition and exchange offer.
These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this
press release, and each of Liberty Interactive, QVC and zulily
expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate
any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained
herein to reflect any change in Liberty Interactive's, QVC's or
zulily's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events,
conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Please refer to the publicly filed documents of Liberty
Interactive, QVC and zulily, including the most recent Forms 10-K
and 10-Q, for additional information about Liberty Interactive, QVC
and zulily and about the risks and uncertainties related to the
business of each of Liberty Interactive, QVC and zulily which may
affect the statements made in this press release.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
The
exchange offer for the outstanding shares of zulily referenced in
this communication has not yet commenced. This announcement is for
informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor
a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of zulily or Liberty
Interactive, or to purchase shares of Liberty Interactive, nor is
it a substitute for the registration statement and exchange offer
materials that Liberty Interactive and/or its acquisition
subsidiary will file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (the "SEC") upon commencement of the exchange offer. At
the time the offer is commenced, Liberty Interactive and its
acquisition subsidiary will file exchange offer materials on
Schedule TO and a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC,
and zulily will file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on
Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the exchange offer. The
exchange offer materials (including a Prospectus/Offer to Exchange,
a related Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents)
and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement will contain
important information. Holders of shares of zulily are urged to
read these documents when they become available because they will
contain important information that holders of zulily securities
should consider before making any decision regarding tendering
their securities. The Prospectus/Offer to Exchange, the
related Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents, as
well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, will be made
available to all holders of shares of zulily at no expense to them.
The exchange offer materials and the Solicitation/Recommendation
Statement will be made available for free at the SEC's web site at
http://www.sec.gov. Free copies of these documents will be made
available by zulily by mail to zulily, inc., 2601 Elliott Avenue,
Suite 200, Seattle, WA, 98121,
Attention: Erica Yamamoto and free
copies of the exchange offer materials will be made available by
Liberty Interactive by directing a request to Liberty Interactive,
12300 Liberty Boulevard, Englewood,
CO, 80112, Attention: Investor Relations, Telephone (720)
875-5420.
In addition to the Prospectus/Offer to Exchange, the related
Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents, as well as
the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, Liberty Interactive and
zulily file annual, quarterly and special reports and other
information with the SEC. You may read and copy any reports or
other information filed by Liberty Interactive or zulily at the SEC
public reference room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at
1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the public reference
room. Liberty Interactive's and zulily's filings with the SEC are
also available to the public from commercial document-retrieval
services and at the website maintained by the SEC at
http://www.sec.gov.
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SOURCE QVC, Inc.