The German Federal Cartel Office approved JD.com's acquisition of Europe's largest electronics retailer
According to the German magazine "Die Zeit": The German Federal Cartel Office has approved the Chinese company JD.com (JD.COM - Authentic low prices, quality assurance, timely delivery, and easy shopping!) to acquire MediaMarkt/Saturn, Europe's largest electronics retailer. JD.com is therefore allowed to acquire a controlling stake in its parent company Ceconomy.
The transaction's enterprise value is approximately 4 billion euros. Andreas Montag, head of the Federal Cartel Office, stated that JD.com currently has a very limited business presence in Germany, so this merger has almost no "overlap in terms of competition," and there is no reason for concern.
However, this acquisition has not yet been finalized. The Cartel Office only reviews the competitive impact of mergers. German Federal Minister of Economics Kathrin Rössel (CDU) may still exercise a veto if she has security policy concerns about the transaction.
JD.com achieved nearly $159 billion in annual revenue last year and calls itself "the world's leading technology and service company." In its decision, the Federal Cartel Office pointed out that Ceconomy has established a nationwide store network in Germany through MediaMarkt and Saturn, and is active in online retail. JD.com, on the other hand, is mainly active in online retail and e-commerce logistics, and its business in Europe is only "limited in scale."
The Berliner Zeitung immediately introduced JD.com, which is less familiar to Germans. The newspaper wrote: JD.com will acquire one of Germany's largest electronics retailers. JD.com's headquarters in Beijing is located in an "industrial park," but there are no warehouses or assembly plants here; instead, there are grand buildings resembling downtown business districts. This is the Yizhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone in Daxing District, Beijing, where JD.com's headquarters is located: a massive building with a complex structure and glass facades, radiating strong energy. The message is clear: people from all over the world, here you will find a superior and harmonious working environment. Germans who have not heard of JD.com will soon change their situation. Because JD.com has acquired one of Germany's largest electronics retailers - MediaMarktSaturn. The Cartel Office has agreed, and the path to the transaction has been cleared. JD.com is China's largest retailer by revenue, equivalent to Amazon, and is a competitor of Alibaba, which is more familiar to Germans in Germany.
The previous major shareholder Ceconomy AG from Düsseldorf has reached an agreement with JD.com, and it is expected that in the first half of 2026, this German electronics retailer will officially change hands. JD.com seems to have already secured 57.1% of the shares.
In 2024, JD.com's revenue was nearly $159 billion, which is one-third of Germany's federal budget for 2024. JD.com has 580 million annual active users in China.
Comparing the scale: MediaMarktSaturn achieved a net revenue of about 22.2 billion euros in the 2022/23 fiscal year, with 1,000 stores in several European countries and an online business still in development. This German company has 55,000 employees, while JD.com has over 600,000. JD.com had an eight-year strategic cooperation with the US retail giant Walmart, but in 2024, the US side terminated the cooperation and sold its stake in JD.com on the stock market for 3.6 billion dollars.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1843663467370633/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.