BERLIN / HAMBURG, 11 JULY 2025 // – Zalando SE (“Zalando”) and ABOUT YOU Holding SE
(“ABOUT YOU”) today announced that they have completed their strategic combination,
allowing them to serve customers and partners across Europe better. With their
complementary Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business offerings, the two
founder-led companies will build a pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle
e-commerce and cover a larger share of the European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce
market.
On 1 July 2025, the European Commission 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% 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.
Since announcing the intention to team up on 11 December 2024, both Zalando and
ABOUT YOU have been preparing for this next phase. Each company has developed plans
to ensure a smooth collaboration and clear focus on joint value creation after closing,
aiming to combine their complementary strengths while preserving their unique
identities.
“Both companies grew from local start-ups to European success stories by understanding
the nuanced and diverse needs of customers across many markets, and 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. “In B2C, we offer customers and brands two distinct and rich
shopping experiences. In B2B, combining our complementary logistics and software
capabilities ZEOS, Tradebyte and SCAYLE, will create an even more advanced e-commerce
operating system that enables brands and retailers to manage their multi-channel
business across Europe and beyond.”
“At the heart of this team-up is our shared commitment to redefining fashion and lifestyle
shopping and creating real value for our customers and partners. We are excited to join
forces with Zalando to drive innovation and realise new growth opportunities for SCAYLE
and ABOUT YOU,” said Tarek Müller, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of ABOUT YOU. “This
strategic transaction opens the door to great collaboration, while allowing us to stay true
to the individuality and energy that define ABOUT YOU.”
Joint focus on growth and long-term value creation
ABOUT YOU’s operations add scale and complementary capabilities, fully aligning with
Zalando’s ecosystem strategy, as communicated in March 2024, to build a pan-European
fashion and lifestyle e-commerce ecosystem. The transaction presents compelling value
creation opportunities that the two companies, operating in the same industry, can
generate by collaborating in a wide range of areas, including B2B, logistics, payments, and
commercial collaboration. In the longer term, Zalando targets significant Group EBIT
synergies of around 100 million euros per annum.
In the B2C growth vector, adding ABOUT YOU will enable Zalando to implement a
dual-brand strategy. Each brand retains its distinct identity while leveraging synergies in
logistics, payment infrastructure and commercial collaboration. This strategic move allows
the combined entity to provide tailored and separate shopping experiences, effectively
meeting the unique needs and preferences of customers.
In the B2B growth vector, ABOUT YOU's SCAYLE complements Zalando's B2B vision to
build an operating system for fashion and lifestyle. ZEOS, Tradebyte and SCAYLE join
forces to help brands and retailers manage their multi-channel business across Europe
and beyond with a suite of logistics, software and service offerings.
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.
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% and 10%1
. The combined group
expects an adjusted EBIT margin in 2028 in the corridor of 6% to 8%, 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.
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.
Born in Europe, Built to Grow
The combination brings together two founder-led teams with a strong cultural fit, an
entrepreneurial track record, and highly complementary capabilities. Both companies
built their success on understanding Europe's unique complexity and hence reflect
Europe's unique strengths – cultural diversity and collaborative innovation across borders
and markets.
“Zalando and ABOUT YOU are proof that Europe can produce growth companies for the
digital age,” said Gentz. “We are excited about teaming up for the next stage of our joint journey to deliver exciting innovation and sustainable growth at scale across Europe.”
Further information is available at: https://www.the-perfect-fit.de
ZALANDO
Founded in Berlin in 2008, Zalando is Europe’s leading online multi-brand fashion
destination. Zalando is building a pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle
e-commerce, along two growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and
Business-to-Business (B2B). In B2C, we provide an inspiring, high-quality multi-brand
shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to more than 52 million active
customers across 25 markets. In B2B, we leverage our logistics infrastructure, software,
and service capabilities to support brands and retailers in managing and scaling their
entire e-commerce business, both on and off the Zalando platform. Through our
ecosystem vision, Zalando aims to enable positive change in the fashion and lifestyle
industry. For further information, please visit: https://corporate.zalando.com
ABOUT YOU
The ABOUT YOU Group is an international e-commerce group, organized into different
strategic business units: The online fashion store ABOUT YOU represents the Group's
business-to-consumer business. With over 12 million active customers, ABOUT YOU is one
of the largest online retailers for fashion and lifestyle in Europe and the leading provider of
a personalized shopping experience on smartphones. In the award-winning ABOUT YOU
app and on aboutyou.com, customers find inspiration and a range of around 750,000
items from nearly 4,000 brands. The Group's business-to-business operations are largely
handled by SCAYLE GmbH. SCAYLE offers a modern, cloud-based enterprise shop system
that enables brands and retailers to scale their digital businesses quickly and flexibly, and
adapt to growing customer needs. Around 300 online stores choose SCAYLE's Commerce
technology under a license model, including leading brands and retailers such as Harrods,
Manchester United, Deichmann, Fielmann, and FC Bayern. For further information, please
visit: corporate.aboutyou.de/en.
ZALANDO – MEDIA AND INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT:
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Sarah Syed
Head of Business and Financial Communications
presse@zalando.de
INVESTOR / ANALYST INQUIRIES
Patrick Kofler
Director of Investor Relations
investor.relations@zalando.de
ABOUT YOU – MEDIA AND INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT:
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Laila Helmy
Head of Corporate Communications
presse@aboutyou.com
INVESTOR / ANALYST INQUIRIES
Frank Böhme
Head of of Investor Relations
IR@aboutyou.com
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation to
sell or an offer to buy any of the securities of ABOUT YOU Holding SE. The final terms and
conditions and other provisions relating to the Takeover Offer are disclosed in the offer
document, the publication of which has been approved by the German Federal Financial
Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht). Investors and
holders of securities of ABOUT YOU Holding SE are strongly recommended to read the
offer document and all other announcements in connection with the Takeover Offer as
soon as they are published, as they contain or will contain important information.
The Takeover Offer is made exclusively under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany,
especially under the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbsund Übernahmegesetz – WpÜG), and certain provisions of the securities laws of the
United States of America applicable to cross-border takeover offers. Zalando SE and the
persons acting in conjunction with Zalando SE therefore do not assume any responsibility
for compliance with law other than the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany or
applicable securities laws of the United States of America. Zalando SE and the persons
acting in conjunction with Zalando SE assume no responsibility for the publication,
dispatch, distribution or dissemination of any documents connected with the Takeover
Offer outside the Federal Republic of Germany being compatible with the applicable
requirements of jurisdictions other than those of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Furthermore, Zalando SE and the persons acting in conjunction with Zalando SE assume
no responsibility for the non-compliance of third parties with any laws.
Zalando SE reserves the right, to the extent legally permitted, to directly or indirectly
acquire further shares of ABOUT YOU Holding SE outside the Takeover Offer on or off the
stock exchange. If such further acquisitions take place, information about such
acquisitions will be published without undue delay, if and to the extent required by the
laws of the Federal Republic of Germany or any other relevant jurisdiction.
Insofar as this document contains forward-looking statements, these do not represent
facts and are identified by the words “will”, “expect”, “believe”, “estimate”, “intend”, “aim”,
“assume” and similar expressions. These statements express the intentions, beliefs or
current expectations and assumptions of Zalando SE and the persons acting in concert
with it. The forward-looking statements are based on current plans, estimates and
projections made by Zalando SE and the persons acting in concert with Zalando SE to the
best of their knowledge, but make no representation as to their future accuracy.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, most of which are
difficult to predict and are usually beyond the control of Zalando SE or the persons acting
in concert with Zalando SE. These expectations and forward-looking statements may
prove to be inaccurate and actual developments may differ materially from
forward-looking statements. Zalando SE and the persons acting in concert with Zalando
SE do not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements with respect
to actual developments or events, general conditions, assumptions or other factors.
1 Base year 2023