Blue Yonder’s Leading AI and ML Capabilities Accelerate Digital
Transformations
Founded in 2008, Blue Yonder received early stage backing from anchor
investor Otto Group and a growth equity investment from Warburg Pincus,
and operates in Europe and the U.S.
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Based in Karlsruhe, Germany, Blue Yonder is the leading provider of
artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in retail and has assembled one
of the largest teams of PhDs/data scientists focused on supply chain and
retail merchandising.
Blue Yonder delivers hundreds of millions of automated decisions and
forecasts daily and will power JDA’s
next generation Luminate™ platform, enabling companies to make more
intelligent, profitable decisions in their digital transformations.
UK supermarket chain WM Morrisons and e-commerce company OTTO are among
the leading companies utilizing Blue Yonder’s solutions to deliver
differentiated customer experiences and drive operational efficiencies.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. & KARLSRUHE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JDA
Software Inc., the leading provider of end-to-end supply chain
and retail solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Blue
Yonder, the market leader in AI solutions for retail. This
acquisition reflects the increasing importance of connecting intelligent
data and insights to enable more profitable Autonomous Supply Chain™
decisions and optimized customer experiences. It builds on JDA’s
strategy of developing cognitive and connected solutions to power
digital transformations for companies seeking to create a competitive
advantage for their supply chains. The acquisition is subject to
competition agency approval.
Blue Yonder – Proven Leader in AI/ML Solutions for Retail
Blue Yonder enables companies to take a transformative approach to their
core processes, automating complex decisions that deliver higher profits
and customer value using leading AI/ML algorithms. Blue Yonder’s proven
data science capabilities will allow JDA to more quickly embed new
levels of actionable intelligence across all areas of its SaaS solution
roadmap, from retail/supply chain planning, to execution, to labor
management and through to omni-channel delivery to create significant
value realization for customers. Blue Yonder’s SaaS solutions deliver
rapid time-to-value and game-changing business value.
Acquisition Will Accelerate Customers’ Digital Transformations
The cognitive capabilities of JDA’s entire solutions portfolio – from
planning to execution to delivery – will be greatly enhanced and
accelerated by leveraging Blue Yonder’s advanced AI/ML capabilities.
JDA Luminate
solutions, including the first-of-its-kind Luminate
ControlTower™, which connects data and enables visibility across a
company’s extended supply chain, will benefit from the “brain power”
of Blue Yonder’s proven cognitive capabilities and rich, deep
learnings to automate more profitable business decisions.
Blue Yonder’s intelligent Demand Forecast & Replenishment and Price
Optimization solutions will further complement and enhance JDA’s own
retail planning solutions, which deliver integrated, customer-centric
supply chain and merchandising processes. Blue Yonder’s ML
capabilities will offer immediate opportunities for JDA’s retail
customers to dynamically improve their pricing, promotions, markdowns
and replenishment capabilities.
Blue Yonder’s advanced forecasting will also drive substantial
benefits to fast and short lifecycle products, benefitting the fresh
food chain and leading to less waste, optimized labor and improved
sustainability.
As part of the world’s leading supply chain management company, Blue
Yonder will be able to accelerate its growth, invest more resources to
development and deliver even more innovation to customers at scale to
help deliver on JDA’s vision for an Autonomous Supply Chain™. To help
deliver on this joint mission, Blue Yonder founder, former CERN
physicist and KIT professor Dr. Michael Feindt will provide ongoing
thought and innovation leadership to both companies, and CEO Uwe Weiss
will join JDA’s Operating Committee.
JDA’s acquisition of Blue Yonder is expected to close in August, subject
to competition agency approval. Both companies will refrain from
commenting further on the acquisition until the transaction is complete.
CEO Comments
“Major digital transformation of supply chains is underway and the
ability to quickly access intelligent, actionable data and insights will
determine the future winners and losers,” said JDA Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) Girish Rishi. “JDA’s end-to-end solution portfolio,
coupled with Blue Yonder’s leading AI/ML capabilities, will enable
customers to deliver more autonomous, profitable business decisions
throughout their extended supply chains, unlocking the full business
impact of intelligent data.”
“With JDA’s global scope and reach, we have a terrific opportunity to
drive the use of our AI solutions throughout the world’s largest and
most complex supply chains and to support companies in driving AI
innovation and automated decisions in complex supply chains,” said Uwe
Weiss, Blue Yonder CEO. “The Blue Yonder team is excited about
accelerating and expanding our mission of creating best-in-class
AI-based decisions to deliver outstanding customer experiences,
increased revenue, and higher margins to companies around the world.”
Otto Group and Warburg Pincus Comments
"We are proud to have accompanied Blue Yonder to this day and would like
to thank the Blue Yonder management team, Warburg Pincus and JDA for the
close cooperation. The Otto Group's goal has always been to further
develop Blue Yonder together with the Blue Yonder management team and
Warburg Pincus, and to prepare the company for the next big step on its
path to success,” said Dr. Rainer Hillebrand from Otto Group. “This step
requires a strategic partner with whom the ambitious growth targets can
be better achieved. Therefore, we are excited about this great
partnership with JDA. We plan to continue working closely with Blue
Yonder.”
Max Fowinkel, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus, commented, “We are
very pleased with the international success Blue Yonder has achieved
under Warburg Pincus’ ownership. We would like to thank the Otto Group
and the Blue Yonder management team for our successful cooperation. As
investors, we feel privileged to have supported the Blue Yonder team in
building a leading provider of scalable SaaS-based machine learning
solutions, and we wish the entire team continued success under the new
ownership.”
Tweet this: .@JDASoftware to acquire Blue Yonder, leader of AI/ML
#retail and #supplychain solutions. Learn how this acquisition powers
the #autonomous #supplychain and accelerates customers’ digital
transformations #JDABlueYonder #offwego http://bit.ly/2Kr1hf
About JDA Software, Inc.
JDA Software is the leading supply chain software provider powering
today’s digital transformations. We help companies optimize delivery to
customers by enabling them to predict and shape demand, fulfill faster
and more intelligently, and improve customer experiences and loyalty.
More than 4,000 global customers use our unmatched end-to-end software
and SaaS solutions to unify and shorten their supply chains, increase
speed of execution, and profitably deliver to their customers. Our
world-class client roster includes 76 of the top 100 retailers, 77 of
the top 100 consumer goods companies, and 8 of the top 10 global 3PLs.
Running JDA, you can plan to deliver.
Learn more at www.jda.com
About Blue Yonder
Blue Yonder enables retailers to take a transformative approach to their
core processes, automating complex decisions that deliver higher profits
and customer value using artificial intelligence (AI). With AI embedded
into their supply chain and merchandising processes, retailers can
respond quicker to changing market conditions and customer dynamics,
boosting revenues and increasing margins. Developed by one of the
largest teams of PhD-level data scientists in retail, our solution
delivers hundreds of millions of automated decisions daily to
international grocery, fashion and general merchandise retailers. Blue
Yonder was founded in 2008 in Karlsruhe, Germany, by former CERN
physicist and KIT professor Michael Feindt. The company has been awarded
the Experton Big Data Leader Award 2016, the BT Retail Week Technology
Award and the IGD Award 2017 for Supply Chain Innovation. Blue Yonder
provides its solutions through Microsoft Azure.
Learn more at www.blue-yonder.com
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Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the
name “JDA” is a trademark and/or property of JDA Software Group, Inc.
Contacts
JDA Public Relations Contact:
Beth Elkin, GVP, Marketing
+1
214-294-2121