Pitney Bowes to sell e-commerce services unit for $100 million
STAMFORD — Shipping-andmailing firm Pitney Bowes announced this week that it would sell its BorderFree e-commerce services business for approximately $100 million to e-commerce services provider Global-e.
Stamford-headquartered Pitney Bowes’ agreement with PetahTikva, Israel-headquartered Global-e focuses on a business within Pitney Bowes’ global e-commerce division that helps retailers enter new markets by localizing their domestic websites in more than 200 countries and territories and also assists them in simplifying compliance and regulations processing.
“This acquisition follows our strategy to support the global expansion of brands of all sizes in the most sophisticated way possible,” Global-e co-founder and President Nir Debbi said in a statement. “By partnering with
Pitney Bowes and utilizing Borderfree’s demand generation capabilities, Global-e will continue to enhance the value it brings to global brands looking to fully capitalize on their cross-border (direct-to-consumer) channel. In addition, the acquisition will further cement our leadership as the end-to-end solution of choice for any size of merchant, from small and emerging brands all the way to the world’s largest enterprise brands.”
The sale is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2022, “subject to customary conditions.”
In 2022, Borderfree is projected to generate more than $40 million in revenues. Including Borderfree, Pitney Bowes’ global e-commerce revenues totaled about $1.7 billion in 2021, up 5 percent from 2020.
Global e-commerce revenues were the largest source of Pitney Bowes’ 2021 revenues, which contributed to the company ranking No. 729 on the 2022 Fortune list of the largest U.S. corporations.
Borderfree employs about 85 people, including four based in Pitney Bowes’ offices in Shelton. The rest of them are based in other parts of the U.S., Israel, United Kingdom, Ireland and Poland. All of them are expected to transfer to Global-e when the deal is completed.
At the same time, Pitney Bowes and Global-e announced a “strategic partnership and commercial relationship,” in which Pitney Bowes would provide cross-border e-commerce logistics services to Global-e and its clients. In exchange, Pitney Bowes clients would gain access to cross-border solutions on the Global-e platform.
“Pitney Bowes is excited to form a strategic partnership with Global-e to further extend our suite of Designed Cross-Border services as Pitney Bowes continues to grow and invest in our advanced suite of e-commerce logistics services for delivery and returns,” Gregg Zegras, Pitney Bowes’ executive vice president and president of global e-commerce, said in a statement. “Merchants will benefit from the combination of Global-e’s best-inclass cross-border localization technology and best-in-class ecommerce logistics capabilities from Pitney Bowes, a strength we will continue to build globally.”