Ocado shares gain on rumours of interest from Amazon, Walmart
Ocado’s [LON:OCDO] share price gained 3% yesterday, 24 August, on speculation that the UK-based grocery delivery service may have attracted takeover interest from Amazon [NASDAQ:AMZN] and Wal-mart Stores Inc. [NYSE:WMT], the Daily Express reported. The newspaper’s market report section did not cite a source for the rumour.
Ocado’s share price closed 8.9p up at 300.0p in London yesterday, giving the company a market capitalisation of GBP 1.78bn (EUR 2.08bn).
Background:
Rumours of Amazon’s interest in buying Ocado date back to 2011, with the Seattle, Washington-based online retailer said to have hired advisers to work on a bid approach in January this year, according to a Daily Mail report on 19 January.
WalMart’s UK supermarket subsidiary Asda was named as a potential bidder for Ocado in market reports in January 2011.
The report appeared on page 54 of the print edition of the Daily Express on Thursday, 25 August
Daily Express