On Friday, October 12, Walmart announced that it had acquired apparel retailer Bare Necessities for an undisclosed amount. Bare Necessities, founded in 1998, offers more than 100,000 SKUs from more than 160 brands, including an extensive assortment of bras, swimwear, shapewear and sleepwear. Intimates is a category that has been rapidly growing online and has complex sizing and highly specialized products. A recent article on Talkbusiness.net pegs the company’s revenues at $66 million and employee count at 170. CEO and Cofounder Noah Wrubel will lead the intimates category for both Walmart.com and Jet.com, while also continuing to run Bare Necessities, and Bill Richardson, COO and Cofounder, will also remain with the company. The company commented that Bare Necessities will bring deep category expertise, a content offering designed to educate intimates shoppers, as well as strong brand relationships and operational capabilities. Walmart outlined its broader acquisition strategy, which includes the following two types of companies:

1. Category leaders with specialized expertise and assortment that can help enhance the customer experience on Walmart.com and Jet.com, such as Hayneedle, Moosejaw and Shoes.com. (Bare Necessities falls under this category.)
2. Digital brands that offer unique products customers cannot find anywhere else, such as think Bonobos, ModCloth and the recently-acquired ELOQUII.

Our updated Walmart timeline is included below.

Source: Company reports/S&P Capital IQ/Coresight Research