Blue Yonder announces an agreement to acquire One Network Enterprises for $839 million

Earlier today, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Blue Yonder, a provider of AI-driven and end-to-end supply chain management services, announced it has acquired Dallas-based One Network Enterprises (One Network), a global provider of intelligent control towers and its Digital Supply Chain Network platform, which focuses on driving demand, supply, and logistics management effectiveness and efficiency.

Blue Yonder officials said the purchase is around $839 million, which is subject to adjustments, with the deal expected to close in the second or third quarter. What’s more, the company said this represents Blue Yonder’s third acquisition going back to the fourth quarter 2023, including: flexisAG, a software technology services provider, with a focus on production optimization and transportation planning and execution, in February, and Doddle, a provider of returns management and reverse logistics services, in November 2023. These three deals account for roughly $1 billion in M&A activity for Blue Yonder, the company noted.

Blue Yonder officials said that upon completion of this deal, the company will be able to provide its customers with what it called a unified, end-to-end supply chains ecosystem and be well positioned to serve its customers’ needs across planning execution, commerce, and networks.

“Supply chains have become more complex, and as more and more companies reduce risk by diversifying sourcing of products globally, there is an increased demand for the sharing of information and resources across the whole value chain. This, along with increased disruptions and geopolitical risks, have put the pressure on organizations to build more resilient and robust supply chains,” said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder, in a statement. “Combined with One Network’s capabilities, Blue Yonder will establish itself as a leading supply chain solutions company that can offer a unified, end-to-end supply chain ecosystem that is resilient enough to withstand today’s challenges, and synthesized with innovative, future-focused technologies.”

In an interview with LM, Blue Yonder Chief Innovation Officer Andrea Morgan-Vandome explained that this deal serves as a key part of the company’s strategy to create what she called world-class supply chain solutions, touching every node in the supply chain.

“For us, we obviously had the end-to-end solutions in terms of planning, transportation, and warehouse management,” she said. “And we've been heavily investing in AI to be able to make the smart decision, so for what was missing for us, was always then the network that underpins that. “It has been something we've been looking at and working on for about the last 18 months to see what would be a good and the right network for us to take a look at, because if you think about where we going, if we truly want to get to this autonomous supply chain over time, it's going to really take these end-to-end solutions, and it's going to take AI at scale. But it is also about having all of these multiple enterprises and multi-tier enterprises on a network so that we can truly sort of have visibility and information sharing and be able to make some smart decisions and then action them across the supply chain. It's a very core part of our strategy.”

When asked how bringing One Network into the fold benefits Blue Yonder’s customers, Morgan-Vandome said that one key benefit will be that it will allow them to accelerate their decision-making, noting that there is currently visibility from materials and for loads, routes, and capacity, collectively enabling customers to see things earlier and make decisions.

As an example, she said if a customer has a shortage for a particular material, that leads to the question if the customer can source it from a different spot, expedite it, or rethink how to do it? That is something which previously may have taken more time to have visibility into, but now with the respective networks connected, it provides decision-making advantages.

Another key benefit she cited is the ability to share data across multi-tiered supply chains, including suppliers and carriers, which she said provides more insights to potential disruptions and the ability to manage those risks.

“It also improve our supplier and carrier collaboration, right from the order creation, and it enables a lot of the journey,” she said. “If you think about it, some of the top synergies might be how do we bring transportation, warehousing, and supplier collaboration together, which is a whole visibility play, but also in our planning. Now, if you think about the supply planning, we actually have visibility much earlier to suppliers through supply collaboration of what's happened so we can readjust those plans much earlier in the cycle.”

The network of One Network’s Digital Supply Chain Network, which is leveraged by more than 150,000 trading partners and Blue Yonder’s offerings, provides various benefits, according to Blue Yonder, including accelerating end-to-end decision-making, including end-to-end decision-making, and offering real-time insights and predictions, enabling the ability to take action across the supply chain ecosystem.

Blue Yonder’s Morgan-Vandome explained that One Network’s Digital Supply Chain Network allows all of these trading partners to be truly connected.

“Because they're on that network, anytime a new enterprise comes in, they have access to those same ones don't have to be integrated,” she said. “The second piece is it gives a lot of the visibility right across the supply chain because now everyone is connected and you can see what is happening across the supply chain. And it also allows them to collaborate a little bit more. It also does things like helping with procurement pay capabilities, some of the logistics execution for things like yard management and trade management. Not only does it connect everyone and have the benefit of actually…once they're on they are then available, but also then allows you to streamline a lot of the business processes.”

As for next steps until the deal is completed, Morgan-Vandome said there is a due diligence process. When that is done, she said Blue Yonder will start to look at the roadmap going forward and look at bringing more people on to the company’s network and functionally integrating the companies’ customer bases.

“We will work closely with One Network in terms on what's the go forward roadmap,” she said. “We have customer advisory boards, and Blue Yonder feels really strongly in working with our customers. So, they will be included along the way. Our goal is to actually make sure that we now have all we have the ability to sense what's really happening from an information and data perspective and then make smarter decisions based on it [through things like] thinking of everything end-to-end and with AI on the network.”

Looking ahead, Morgan-Vandome said that Blue Yonder will continue to focus on acquisitions, with the company looking at where it thinks it may have gaps as it moves towards an autonomous supply chain.

She also highlighted how Blue Yonder is investing $1 billion into the development of its own solutions over the next two years, which it announced in May 2023, coupled with acquisitions, as its primary growth drivers, along with its partnership with data cloud company Snowflake, whom “powers” Blue Yonder’s Luminate platform, which it said enables retailers, manufacturers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to better predict, prevent and resolve disruptions across their business in order to mitigate risks and tackle growing industry supply chain challenges.

Ben Gordon, founder and managing partner of Palm Beach, Florida-based Cambridge Capital, and managing partner of Ben Gordon Strategic Advisors (BGSA), said that this acquisition is noteworthy for various reasons.

“First, at $839 million, it is the largest supply chain technology deal of the year thus far,” he said. “Second, it provides true end-to-end solutions, spanning from planning to fulfillment. Third, it gives Blue Yonder strength in ‘intelligent control towers’ and visibility.”