Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet leads a bid to buy back Rakuten France, sixteen years after selling it. Traffic is down 42%, active customers down 33%, and operating losses are 10-15M euros.
Alpha Score of 66 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, strong value, poor quality. Based on 3 of 4 signals — score is capped at 90 until remaining data ingests.
Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, the founder of French online marketplace PriceMinister, said he is preparing a takeover bid for Rakuten France, the Japanese ecommerce group that acquired his platform in 2010 for 200 million euros. He would be buying back the company sixteen years after selling it.
PriceMinister built its reputation on secondhand books, eventually overtaking eBay as the largest French ecommerce site. Rakuten absorbed the platform in 2010. Last month, Rakuten France said it was looking for a buyer. Over the past decade, traffic has dropped 42 percent and the number of active customers has fallen 33 percent, according to French newspaper L'Informé. The unit generates revenue of about 50 million euros and yearly gross merchandise volume of roughly 370 million euros. Its operating losses run between 10 and 15 million euros. If no buyer appears, Rakuten France said it will start shutting down in the third quarter.
Kosciusko-Morizet's bid includes investment fund Verdoso and Fabien Versavau, who led Rakuten France from 2018 to 2024. The group plans to revive the PriceMinister brand, which Rakuten retired in 2018, and focus on peer-to-peer sales, returning to the platform's original model. Professional sellers currently on Rakuten France would remain part of the new version.
Other potential buyers have been mentioned, including Casino, the parent company of Cdiscount; Carrefour (CRRFY); Pixmania; and Back Market. Carrefour currently carries an Alpha Score of 66 within the Consumer Defensive sector.
No sale has been finalized. Rakuten France has said it will begin closing down in the third quarter if it cannot find a buyer.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.