Belgian national postal operator acquires Radial for $820 million

The Belgian national postal operator, bpost, said Monday it had acquired the e-commerce fulfillment provider Radial for $820 million in a move to gain a foothold in the burgeoning U.S. parcel logistics market and to provide cross-border services for its customers in Europe and North America.

Bpost said it bought Radial in a move to expand its offerings and to leverage its scale, citing King of Prussia, Pa.-based Radial's network of some two dozen fulfillment centers in North America and Europe providing omnichannel commerce operations. Additional scale would build on Landmark Global, its global fulfillment and international shipping business, bpost said. In addition to offering enough muscle to handle large e-commerce operations for brands and retailers, Radial also sells advanced e-commerce capabilities such as payment, tax and fraud protection services, fulfillment, and customer care, bpost said.

The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

Radial is the former eBay Enterprise division that spun off from its parent company in 2016 to merge with fellow e-commerce fulfillment firm Innotrac, with the goal of building a large enough enterprise to challenge Amazon.com Inc. for a slice of the online retail pie. Together, the partners provide order management, payment processing, order routing, fulfillment, and analytics services for their retailer customers. The combined companies now run some 24 DCs and six call centers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, serving online retailers like DSW Inc., GameStop Corp., Shoe Carnival Inc., and Destination XL Group Inc.

Bpost did not indicate whether it planned to make any changes in leadership at Radial, but released a statement from current Radial CEO Matthew Espe. "Radial represents the gold standard for profitable e-commerce and omnichannel technology, arming merchants with the capabilities needed to operate at a global scale," Espe said in a statement. "There has never been a more important time when it comes to helping brands grow their online business profitably, especially when reaching their customer base internationally."