PANASONIC/AZ-BLUE-YONDER
On May 20, 2020, Panasonic Corporation announced that it is making an equity investment in Blue Yonder — the leading end-to-end supply chain software provider. The investment via a secondary sale of shares values Blue Yonder at an enterprise value of $5.5 billion. It builds upon a strong strategic relationship between the two companies, including a joint venture in Japan announced in April 2019. Panasonic will have a 20% minority ownership stake and one seat on the Board of Directors of Blue Yonder.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200520005307/en/
The expanded partnership between Panasonic and Blue Yonder will accelerate the promise of the Autonomous Supply Chain™. Harnessing the edge via the Internet of Things (IoT), Blue Yonder’s platform utilizes machine learning to drive faster, more context-aware business decisions — all to deliver autonomous outcomes.
Blue Yonder and Panasonic will combine resources and work closely with partner companies in Japan to fuel growth by selling Blue Yonder’s Luminate™ solutions and bringing forth new, jointly-developed solutions on the Blue Yonder Luminate Platform that enhance customers’ capabilities for supply and demand forecasting, inventory and labor optimization, and streamlining business operations.
“Modern day supply chains face a number of challenges including rapidly shifting demand, hyper-personalization of consumer needs, labor shortages and operational inefficiencies, so by further developing our relationship with supply chain software specialists Blue Yonder, I believe we will be able to make larger, more transformative contributions to a greater number of customers,” stated Yasu Higuchi, Representative Director of Panasonic Corporation and CEO of Panasonic’s Connected Solutions Company. “In order to do so, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of Blue Yonder’s advanced global solutions and business model so that we can augment and further elevate our own solutions capability. Through this collaboration, we aim to become a global leading provider of frontline process innovation.”
“I am excited about this collaboration to realize our joint vision for digital supply chain — where Blue Yonder’s platform synchronizes with Panasonic’s edge offerings to deliver more autonomous, successful business outcomes for retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers,” said Girish Rishi, CEO of Blue Yonder. “We look forward to working within our Joint Venture in Japan to deliver tremendous customer value.”
Kazuhiro Tsuga, CEO of Panasonic Corporation also commented, “I believe this investment is a vital step for the business transformation that Panasonic’s Connected Solutions Company is undertaking. Until now, the Connected Solutions Company has taken the lead in promoting corporate culture and workstyle reforms, and with this investment we are now delving into transforming our actual business model. Specifically, we will be adding the provision of software, consulting, and services to our traditional business model of selling hardware. This will allow us to support fundamental innovations in the supply chain field — many of which have been highlighted as mission-critical amidst COVID-19 disruptions — and thereby enable us to evolve our solutions to directly address our customers’ challenges. I am certain this is a bold step in the right direction.”
Blue Yonder’s global customers include many of the leading brands in manufacturing, retail and logistics, including Best Buy, BP, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, DHL, Lowes, Mercedes Benz, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Unilever, and Walmart. At the core of Blue Yonder’s solutions is its end-to-end Luminate Platform, which delivers seamless digital fulfillment experiences through AI-powered supply/demand planning and execution orchestration.
New Mountain Capital and funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) continue to be majority shareholders. New Mountain retains a majority of its original investment and Blackstone continues to hold its full investment in Blue Yonder. Both shareholders remain fully committed to supporting Blue Yonder’s strategic vision.
“Blue Yonder” is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name “Blue Yonder” is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc.
About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, operates 528 subsidiaries and 72 associated companies worldwide and reported consolidated net sales of 7.49 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2020. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for customers. Learn more about Panasonic:
https://www.panasonic.com/global
About Blue Yonder
Blue Yonder (formerly JDA Software) provides seamless, friction-free commerce, empowering every organization and person on the planet to fulfill their potential. Blue Yonder’s machine learning-driven digital fulfillment platform enables clients to deliver to their customers when, how and where they want it. Applying over 35 years of domain expertise, contextual intelligence and data science, Blue Yonder is helping more than 3,300 of the world’s leading manufacturers, retailers and logistics companies create more autonomous, sustainable and profitable operations. https://blueyonder.com/
Social Networks:
Panasonic Corporation
Web: https://www.panasonic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PanasonicCorporation
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/panasonic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/panasonic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChannelPanasonic
Blue Yonder
Web: https://blueyonder.com/
Blog: https://blog.blueyonder.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueYonderAI/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueyonder__ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blueyonderai
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlueYonder
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlueYonderAI
Source: https://news.panasonic.com/global/press/data/2020/05/en200520-2/en200520-2.html
Related Links
Connected Solutions Company, Panasonic Corporation
https://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/cns.html
[Press Release] JDA and Panasonic to Establish Joint Venture Company in Japan (Apr 1, 2019)
https://news.panasonic.com/global/press/data/2019/04/en190401-3/en190401-3.html
Panasonic Demonstrates Unique Technology Solutions at the JDA ICON Intelligent Supply Chain Conference (May 08, 2019)
https://news.panasonic.com/global/topics/2019/67943.html
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200520005307/en/
Link:
Social Media:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Stafford Establishes Timberland Continuation Fund at USD 1.2 billion4.12.2025 10:53:00 CET | Press release
This marks Stafford’s second timberland fund at over USD 1 Billion in 2025, backed by strong existing investor support and new capital commitments from global institutional investors Stafford Capital Partners (“Stafford”) today announced it has established a USD 1.2 billion continuation vehicle, the Stafford International Timberland Continuation Fund (The Continuation Fund or The Fund), marking a significant milestone in the firm’s strategic management of its timberland holdings. The Continuation Fund is a "roll-up" of three of Stafford’s existing core timberland funds – Stafford International Timberland funds VI, VII and VIII – into a new perpetual fund that will hold 74 high-quality core timberland assets. The fully-deployed portfolio took Stafford seven years to construct and holds interests in over 6.3m acres of commercial timberland in the USA, New Zealand, Australia and Latin America. This includes a number of assets that are seen as key strategic holdings in these regions where
Smartstream Introduces Agentic AI ‘Smart Agents’ for Investigations and Exceptions Handling4.12.2025 09:55:00 CET | Press release
Smartstream, the trusted data solutions provider for leading global financial institutions and enterprises, today announces the preview of Smart Agents for Investigations, a breakthrough in financial operations that brings augmented and autonomous exception handling to reconciliations and back-office processes. The new investigation agent combines domain-trained AI agents, workflow adoption, and embedded controls to triage, investigate, resolve, and learn from exceptions - reducing manual effort, accelerating time to resolution, and strengthening auditability. It will add a layer of intelligence on top of Smartstream’s current reconciliations and exceptions solutions. It understands the breaks context, adheres to customer playbooks and reaches out for missing information. It documents every step for audit and compliance, allowing analysts to focus on risk. Finally, it augments the analyst’s investigation with contextual information radically changing the user experience to review and a
LabGenius Therapeutics Announces New Collaboration with Sanofi for Multiple AI/ML-driven Antibody Optimisation Programmes4.12.2025 09:00:00 CET | Press release
The companies have entered into a new collaboration where LabGenius Therapeutics will apply its ML-driven antibody discovery platform (EVA™) to optimise potential therapeutic NANOBODY® proteins for multiple new targets LabGenius Therapeutics (“LabGenius”), a drug discovery company combining machine learning (ML) and high-throughput experimentation to optimise potential therapeutic antibodies, today announced a second collaboration with Sanofi. This collaboration combines LabGenius’ AI/ML-driven antibody design capabilities with Sanofi’s expertise in the development of therapeutic NANOBODY® molecules to co-optimise proteins for therapeutically valuable properties. Following the success of their first collaboration, LabGenius will apply the EVA™ platform to optimise NANOBODY® molecules for multiple new targets in the area of inflammation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251204759388/en/ “We are truly excited abo
GoWit One: The Unified AI Operating System Set to Revolutionize Commerce & Retail Media4.12.2025 07:09:00 CET | Press release
WPP Turkey has been selected as a pilot partner to deploy GoWit One, cutting campaign setup time to 10 minutes. GoWit, a global AdTech leader in omnichannel Commerce and Retail Media, announced the launch of GoWit One, the unified AI operating system that brings automation, unification, and real-time intelligence into a single ad platform for agencies operating across multiple retailers, channels, and markets. By bringing these three elements into one dashboard, GoWit One addresses the industry's most critical bottleneck: operational inefficiency. The platform enables agencies to manage campaigns across multiple retailers, channels, and markets, reducing manual AdOps workflows by 98%, turning a process that used to take hours into as little as 10 minutes. Solving the “Fragmentation Crisis” Despite the explosive growth of Retail Media, the industry faces a significant hurdle. According to the IAB, 70% of the market still lacks end-to-end AI adoption. Media buyers are currently forced to
Galderma Secures ‘BBB’ Credit Rating With Positive Outlook from S&P Global Ratings4.12.2025 07:00:00 CET | Press release
‘BBB’ long-term issuer credit rating from S&P Global RatingsPositive outlook, reflecting expected profitability improvement, ramp up of Nemluvio, and continued deleveraging and balance sheet improvementRecognition of Galderma’s science-based dermatology portfolio and global operations Galderma Group AG (SIX:GALD), the pure-play dermatology category leader, today announced that S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has assigned the company a ‘BBB’ long-term issuer credit rating with a positive outlook. The rating reflects Galderma’s strong track record of growth and its leading positions across Injectable Aesthetics, Dermatological Skincare and Therapeutic Dermatology. S&P notes the company’s well-established brand portfolio, global footprint, including an expanding presence in emerging markets, and continued investment in science-based innovation. S&P highlights momentum from recent launches, including Nemluvio® (nemolizumab), alongside improving profitability and expanding free operating cash flow
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom