Docomo Confirms Acquisition of MagaSeek for $21 Million to Boost E-Commerce Efforts

Today, Japanese telco NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) has confirmed that its proposed stake in fashion-oriented e-store MagaSeek (TYO:3060) has been accepted. The Docomo acquisition amounts to a stake of 71.28 percent in MagaSeek in a boost to the telco’s burgeoning e-commerce efforts.

The acquisition deal is worth 2.04 billion yen (US$21.2 million), and is a lot more than the initial 42 percent slice that was initially proposed to MagaSeek and parent company Itochu Corporation – who will retain 25 percent of the e-commerce site under this new agreement.

MagaSeek’s shoppers are mainly female customers in their 20s and 30s, and Docomo will be hoping that a number of its 60 million subscribers (of whom seven million are now on 4G) will try out the e-store once it’s fully integrated into Docomo’s ‘dshopping’ mobile shopping service later this month.

At present, dshopping mainly sells foodstuffs after Docomo took a controlling stake in online supermarket Radishbo-ya last year. By 2015, Docomo aims for e-commerce to contribute seven percent of its revenues, and surely that will necessitate a couple more acquisitions as its dshopping service expands into more product areas.