"Amazon eyes Carrefour acquisition"

According to a French business paper, Amazon is eyeing to acquire Carrefour in an attempt to increase its foothold in Europe. Carrefour’s share suddenly became one of the biggest risers in the Paris stock exchange, even though no proof of the intents has yet been released.

Another blow for competition?

It was Valeurs Actuelles that released the Carrefour-related rumours, stating that the acquisition would make sense: Carrefour’s share value of 13 billion euro is almost completely negligable compared to Amazon’s 394 billion, and the French hypermarket group may be just what Amazon needs to tap into the huge European food market. Carrefour sports a huge network of physical stores all across Europe, a region where still more than 95 % of food sales is made in brick-and-mortar stores.

For competitors like Ahold Delhaize, it would be another blow – just like when Amazon acquired Whole Foods to enter the American food market with a bang.

Nevertheless, not all analysts believe that Carrefour and Amazon would be a match made in heaven. Valeurs Actuelles quoted Kepler Cheuvreux analysts as saying that dispite these rumours, they still feel a collaboration with Google would be more probable for Carrefour than an acquisition by Amazon.