The European Commission has granted approval for a merger between two of Europe’s largest e-commerce companies and they now join forces to be at the forefront of the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce market, which has a market value of €450 billion.
Two of Europe’s largest e-commerce operators, Zalando and About You, have been busy during the spring, bringing the two e-commerce platforms into the same organization. Now, the European Commission has finally granted merger control clearance for the transaction, including the voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of About You. Zalando has now acquired 91.45 percent of About You’s share capital (excluding treasury shares).
Zalando still has the firm intention as a next step to carry out a squeeze-out of the remaining minority shareholders of About You and to acquire the remaining About You shares against adequate cash compensation. The squeeze-out shall take place as part of a merger of About You into a wholly owned subsidiary of Zalando.
Underpinning management’s conviction in the value creation of this transaction, Zalando in December 2024 also confirmed its medium-term outlook for the combined group. Zalando, including About You, is expected to grow GMV and revenue until 2028 at a 5-year compound annual growth rate of between 5 percent and 10 percent. The combined group expects an adjusted Ebit margin in 2028 within the corridor of 6 percent to 8 percent, yielding a significant increase in absolute profit by creating a combined group at a larger scale. Together, Zalando and About You aim to cover a larger share of the 450-billion-euro European fashion market in the long term.
“Both companies grew from local start-ups to European success stories by understanding the nuanced and diverse needs of customers across many markets, and were driven by a relentless focus on quality and innovation. Together, we’ll work to be an unbeatable team to lead the way in European fashion and lifestyle E-commerce,” said Robert Gentz, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Zalando.
About You’s management board members Sebastian Betz, Tarek Müller, and Hannes Wiese will continue their successful work in their current roles as part of the combined group.
Zalando will provide a first outlook for the full year 2025 for the combined business when it reports second-quarter results on 6 August 2025.
