Home Depot, Amazon May Be Competing For Acquisition Of XPO

Home Depot is considering the acquisition of transportation, delivery and logistics services firm XPO, a publicly traded company worth $9 billion.

XPO offers services for larger retailers and brands, and Home Depot is not the only company interested in purchasing the logistics firm, according to Dec. 22 reports from independent tech news source Recode. Rumors have said the home improvement supplies retailer may be joined by eCommerce super force Amazon.

Though whether Amazon is also interested in acquiring XPO remains unconfirmed, both it and Home Depot have been customers of XPO in the past. The Wall Street Journal named XPO as one of the companies with which Amazon was planning to work in its push toward listing and selling bigger items on its eCommerce retail platform.

XPO bolstered its fleet of trucks and available services through the purchase of the Con-way trucking company in 2015 in a $3 billion acquisition. The company is known for its freight transportation and logistics services — and for managing home delivery for larger items like appliances and furniture as “the largest provider of last-mile logistics for heavy goods in North America.”

Amazon made other recent news when it announced it would expand its digital advertising operations in the new year with a particular focus on search and video advertising products. CNBC reported several unnamed ad buyers and technology reporters had already noted Amazon wanted to begin selling advertising on their platforms in addition to its own.

The eCommerce giant also released that 2017 was its biggest holiday shopping season ever, with record levels of customers perusing its site in November and December and more than 4 million new Prime memberships or free trials started in the course of just one week during that time. In addition, Amazon saw a nearly 70 percent increase in mobile app usage this holiday season, with millions of customers ordering tech gadgets through the offering.