Australia was in the process of mourning one of its former retail giants in Dick Smith, but it looks like Ruslan Kogan has just saved it from the brink.
He’s just announced that he’s buying the Dick Smith Online.
To be clear: all of Dick Smith’s retail stores are still being closed down, but the online store will remain. Kogan will take over Dick Smith’s online from June 1 2016.
According to a statement, Kogan said he wants to continue the legacy of the Dick Smith brand.
“Dick Smith is an iconic Australian brand and we’re thrilled to be able to keep it alive, as well as Aussie owned and run,” said Ruslan Kogan, Founder and CEO of Kogan. “We will invest in building and nurturing the Dick Smith community, and honour the great legacy of this Australian business.
“I remember as a kid always visiting Dick Smith to look for parts to upgrade my computer. There is a strong history of passion in the Dick Smith community for how technology can improve our lives, and we look forward to helping make it more affordable and accessible for all.”
As part of the acquisition, Kogan will receive the Dick Smith brand and trademarks, the online business in Australia and New Zealand, customer and loyalty databases, websites and domain names.
According to Kogan, the Dick Smith brand will not be absorbed by Kogan, and will continue to operate as its own separate entity.
Comments
20 responses to “Kogan Just Bought Dick Smith’s Online Store”
Good. Maybe Kogan can salvage what’s left of Dick’s reputation – even if it’s in a different shape.
What reputation? DSE has be irrelevant for god knows how long.
For clarification, Richard H. Smith, not Dick Smith Holdings Ltd.
Perhaps a return to the roots of the Dick Smith brand as a technology and electronics enthusiast store? Well, I guess I still have Jaycar for that.
That would be nice. I remember going in there for LEDs
THIS is was what made dicksmith a great store to visit.
a return to roots would mean they go back to fixing and selling CB radios.
That will most definitely not happen considering how cheap ebay is.
Maybe he can return it to the days where you could buy computer parts there.
I think Kogan just bought it so he can offer great deals on dick.
Like the current owners have been doing?
Weird move since Dick is hardly known for its discount pricing. I guess that Dick does have a bit more legitimacy, maybe, with certain segments of the market (older and less tech savvy users, one presumes).
Still, it dilutes the Kogan brand and Kogan has developed a fairly strong brand itself over the last few years.
As I understand it the receivers were mainly flogging the Dick email list, and that’s certainly worth something to Kogan… although much less if they then don’t use it to ultimately shuffle Dick customers directly over to Kogan.
Aha… looks like the real reason is that the Dick brand is going to make Kogan more palatable to generally conservative institutional investors for the upcoming float. Worth its weight in gold then.
The deal will deliver a significant boost in sales and customer numbers as Mr Kogan, 32, prepares to take his company public through a $300 million initial public offer.
I’d fully expect the Dick brand to die a slow death after the float though.
every store ive ever been in has generally had staff who think they’re better than me, and hate the idea of their products being touched by me.
let it die kogan, let it die 🙂
How do you touch the products being sold by Kogan while you are browsing around?
everytime i try my hand gets slapped 🙁
Touching dick stuff without permission is generally frowned upon
Call me skeptical, but it kind of sounds a lot like Kogan is just buying the name and associated customers rather than keeping the existing brand alive.
Your shareholder dollars at work!
Can you redeem the gift cards on there I wonder (not that DS gift cards should have ever existed in the first place)