South African e-commerce firms Kalahari and Takealot have begun operating as one entity after their merger was approved in January, with Kalahari.com ceasing to exist as a result.
Following the approval of the merger between two of South Africa’s leading general online retailers, Kalahari.com and takealot.com, the companies are now operating as one entity.
Disrupt Africa reported earlier this year South Africa’s Competition Commission had approved the merger announced in October last year, with the firms saying the move was necessitated by the need for greater scale for both Takealot and Kalahari.
Kalahari joins Takealot’s 19 departments and over nine million products, with Naspers and Tiger Global Management each owning 42 per cent of the new merged business. Takealot’s current co-CEOs Kim Reid and Willem van Biljon will continue to run the business.
“From the outset of the transaction it has been the intention to operate as one brand, one site and one business and the past four months has been used to evaluate and restructure the business to ensure a smooth transition and ensure minimum customer disruption,” said Reid.
“We welcome all the Kalahari.com employees who have joined Takealot.com while acknowledging the hard work that went into building the brand and business. We look forward to their continued input and experience as they join us in building out takealot.com into the premier online shopping destination on the African continent,” said van Biljon.
