FedEx acquires InPost for $9.2B
This changes the game.
BREAKING: FedEx has just announced it’s MOST IMPORTANT strategic acquisition since TNT: purchasing out-of-home golden boy InPost for $9.2B USD! Why does this change the game for ecommerce logistics? 👇
Unless you forgot to follow me, you will know InPost has been the golden boy of ecommerce logistics for the past 2 years.
The Out-Of-Home darling from Poland is printing money hand-over-fist, reporting nearly $300M in adjusted EBITA in Q3 alone, and it’s using that cash-printing machine in the most brilliant way possible:
1️⃣ Acquire a stagnated last mile parcel delivery company at scale
2️⃣ Direct all those parcels to Out-Of-Home
3️⃣ GET RICH $$$
In the past few years it’s acquired local last mile leaders in Yodel (Yodel Delivery Network Ltd) UK, Sending Transporte y Logística Spain, Mondial Relay France, and more . . .
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, FedEx has had a great-but-uneventful few years as it deprioritized revenue and volume growths and focused on huge initiatives like DRIVE to merge it’s ground and express infrastructure - which makes 100% sense BTW.
However, FedEx has not been able to capture the rapid growth of global ecommerce innovation in the same way that InPost has been able to do.
Chinese “Dragons” like SHEIN, Temu, and Cainiao Group (part of Alibaba) largely pass their massive volumes down to lower cost asset light start-ups and competitors and the local post like United States Postal Service.
Decoupling with Amazon Shipping has also resulted in Amazon Shipping becoming one of the fastest growing direct competitors of FedEx.
Therefore, up until today, FedEx's growth strategy was uncertain. With InPost under it's belt, however, even if not a full on acquisition:
1️⃣ FedEx gains massive new opportunities to do more in Europe, enabling it to play the private ground infrastructure game where globally it is only rivalled by UPS
2️⃣ InPost potentially obtains more OOH feeder volume in markets where FedEx has a strong ground and last mile service, including previous TNT strongholds
3️⃣ FedEx gains the expertise of the #1 OOH company in the world as it’s alley should it decide to get into the US, where parcel lockers are still early and where Happy Returns, a UPS Company is the dominant player
4️⃣ Both companies can then evaluate new markets together such as LATAM, GCC, and SEA (where I don’t think they’ll make it 😅 )
I would only caution the group to learn from FedEx‘s $4.9B acquisition of TNT in 2016 which till today I don’t think has been fully integrated to FedEx (please correct me if wrong), and to avoid sinking another billion dollars of salaries and consultant fees on integration this time around.
That’s probably why FedEx decided against a full acquisition - so that InPost could continue it’s winning business model with minimum intervention.
Overall today is a very happy day for FedEx and InPost shareholders. Congratulations to them both.
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