Amazon rumoured to be considering Ocado takeover bid

Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 09:25 by David Aiken

Amazon is one of the world's largest online retailers, but in recent years it has been branching out into other areas, with its latest target being the grocery market. And now the US firm may be looking to snap up a controlling stake in food delivery service, Ocado, according to Business Insider.

Sources close to the matter have said that Amazon apparently has an entire team of advisers cooking up a strategy which will enable it to take over Ocado in the near future. Rumours of such a move have resulted in a significant rise in the share price achieved by this smaller firm.

This is not the first time that Amazon has been linked to an Ocado takeover bid, but in this instance, the rumours are backed up by the recent announcement that the e-commerce giant is setting out to offer grocery deliveries to all of its UK customers who want to order food and other consumables via safe shopping online.

In fact, this poses a major threat not only for Ocado, but also for all of the mainstream supermarket chains which provide online grocery services nationwide. And so most analysts expect that Ocado will jump at the chance to be bought out by a bigger rival, rather than having to face the prospect of competing directly with Amazon in the future.

Ocado, of course, has a lot to offer Amazon in its own right, since it already has an extensive delivery and distribution network which is set up to handle fresh produce. And Amazon is currently only dealing with dry goods via its Pantry service for Prime subscribers.

The shake-up of the UK's online grocery market is drawing a lot of attention, especially because Brits are already so committed to carrying out safe shopping online for a wide range of other products and services.