On Friday, Panasonic will get American Artificial Intelligence (AI) supply chain software firm Blue Yonder for $7.1 billion, the Japanese corporation.
The agreement will get Blue Yonder, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Japanese electronics giant, which has held 20 percent of the American firm’s shares for July last year.
Following administrative permission, the deal will be one of the most significant benefits in Panasonic’s records.
Blue Yonder has longer than 3,000 customers globally, including multinationals Coca-Cola and Walmart and airlines and couriers like FedEx.
“The demand for more intelligent, self-governing and edge-aware supply chains has been dramatically increased by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Panasonic said in a report, citing “drastic shifts in stock demand” due to coronavirus lockdowns.
The firm said the alliance would enable it to gain expertise in “state-of-the-art” Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and decrease consumption in supply chains.
It also praised the “soft, agile corporate culture” of Arizona-headquartered Blue Yonder, founded in 2005.