The German technology giant Rocket Internet said on Wednesday that it planned an initial public offering that could value the company at more than 4 billion euros, or about $5 billion.
The announcement is the latest step in the meteoric rise of the German brothers Oliver, Marc, and Alexander Samwer, who started Rocket Internet in 2007 and have expanded the primarily e-commerce technology business from their Berlin headquarters to more than 100 countries.
Yet while American technology entrepreneurs like Jeffrey P. Bezos, who founded Amazon in the early 1990s, launched entire new ways for people to buy goods online, the Samwer brothers have found success by mimicking already successful Internet companies — often applying proven ideas in emerging markets.
Over the last eight years, Rocket Internet has launched hundreds of new Internet companies, which now collectively employee more than 20,000 people worldwide. That includes Linio, a similar e-commerce business to Amazon in Mexico, and Zalaro, an equivalent to Zappos in Malaysia.
“If there’s a clear business model that is proven to work, we will look at it,” Oliver Samwer said in an interview earlier this year. “Every new company is like a speedboat, and we want them to become aircraft carriers.”
Rocket Internet will seek to raise 750 million euros through the I.P.O in Frankfurt. The Berlin-based company said that its existing shareholders, which include the Swedish investment company Kinnevik, would participate in the public offering.
A recent investment by the German Internet service provider United Internet valued Rocket Internet at roughly €4.3 billion.
Unlike many European tech companies that are eager to break into the United States, Rocket Internet has focused its attention outside of America and China where the company believes there are too many rivals to successfully compete.
Instead, the German company has spread across Europe, Latin America and the Asian Pacific region. It often hires young M.B.A. graduates to run its new businesses and provides large amounts of capital to out-muscle existing competitors.
Rocket Internet’s pending I.P.O. comes less than a week after Zalando, the German e-commerce company similar to Zappos, also announced that it was seeking a public offering. Zalando was part of Rocket Internet’s stable of technology companies, but the company has progressively sold its stake in Zalando, which generated $2.3 billion of revenues last year.
While Rocket Internet has successfully mimicked existing e-commerce ideas in emerging markets, the Berlin-based company has had less success with other Internet businesses. The company’s version of Pinternet, for example, which allows people to share photographs and other media, has failed to win over many consumers.
And after Airbnb held talks in 2011 about acquiring Rocket Internet’s Berlin-based copy, the American short-term housing website eventually decided to beef up its own international operations instead of buying the smaller rival.
Berenberg, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are coordinating Rocket Internet’s I.P.O. while Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS are also helping with the offering.Source:http://dealbook.nytimes.com/
The announcement is the latest step in the meteoric rise of the German brothers Oliver, Marc, and Alexander Samwer, who started Rocket Internet in 2007 and have expanded the primarily e-commerce technology business from their Berlin headquarters to more than 100 countries.
Yet while American technology entrepreneurs like Jeffrey P. Bezos, who founded Amazon in the early 1990s, launched entire new ways for people to buy goods online, the Samwer brothers have found success by mimicking already successful Internet companies — often applying proven ideas in emerging markets.
Over the last eight years, Rocket Internet has launched hundreds of new Internet companies, which now collectively employee more than 20,000 people worldwide. That includes Linio, a similar e-commerce business to Amazon in Mexico, and Zalaro, an equivalent to Zappos in Malaysia.
“If there’s a clear business model that is proven to work, we will look at it,” Oliver Samwer said in an interview earlier this year. “Every new company is like a speedboat, and we want them to become aircraft carriers.”
Rocket Internet will seek to raise 750 million euros through the I.P.O in Frankfurt. The Berlin-based company said that its existing shareholders, which include the Swedish investment company Kinnevik, would participate in the public offering.
A recent investment by the German Internet service provider United Internet valued Rocket Internet at roughly €4.3 billion.
Unlike many European tech companies that are eager to break into the United States, Rocket Internet has focused its attention outside of America and China where the company believes there are too many rivals to successfully compete.
Instead, the German company has spread across Europe, Latin America and the Asian Pacific region. It often hires young M.B.A. graduates to run its new businesses and provides large amounts of capital to out-muscle existing competitors.
Rocket Internet’s pending I.P.O. comes less than a week after Zalando, the German e-commerce company similar to Zappos, also announced that it was seeking a public offering. Zalando was part of Rocket Internet’s stable of technology companies, but the company has progressively sold its stake in Zalando, which generated $2.3 billion of revenues last year.
While Rocket Internet has successfully mimicked existing e-commerce ideas in emerging markets, the Berlin-based company has had less success with other Internet businesses. The company’s version of Pinternet, for example, which allows people to share photographs and other media, has failed to win over many consumers.
And after Airbnb held talks in 2011 about acquiring Rocket Internet’s Berlin-based copy, the American short-term housing website eventually decided to beef up its own international operations instead of buying the smaller rival.
Berenberg, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are coordinating Rocket Internet’s I.P.O. while Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS are also helping with the offering.Source:http://dealbook.nytimes.com/
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