In the last few minutes the share price of Ocado has dropped by 5.75% to 2,590.
LONDON, Oct 1 - Online supermarket and technology
group Ocado OCDO.L , which this week became the most valuable
retailer on Britain’s stock market, is being sued by Norwegian
robotics company AutoStore for allegedly infringing patents.
While Ocado’s retail business has only a 1.7% share of
Britain’s grocery market, its state-of-the-art technology for
robotically operated warehouses has spawned partnership deals
with supermarket chains around the world, underpinning a stock
market valuation of over 20 billion pounds ($26 billion).
AutoStore said on Thursday it had filed patent infringement
lawsuits in the United States and the United Kingdom. AutoStore
said Ocado has been its customer since 2012.
AutoStore argues that its storage system and robots are the
foundation on which the “Ocado Smart Platform” (OSP) technology
was built and on which Ocado’s business today is based, and
seeks financial damages.
“Our ownership of the technology at the heart of Ocado’s
warehousing system is clear,” said AutoStore CEO and President
Karl Johan Lier in a statement.
“We will not tolerate Ocado’s continued infringement of our
intellectual property rights in its effort to boost its growth
and attempt to transform itself into a global technology
company,” he added.
AutoStore, founded in 1996, is also seeking to bar Ocado and
its partners from making and selling the products involved, and
from importing them into the United States.
Ocado declined to give comment immediately.
Its shares were down 7% at 1113 GMT.
On Tuesday Ocado overtook Tesco TSCO.L as Britain’s most
valuable retailer by market capitalization.
Ocado, founded in 2000 by three former Goldman Sachs
bankers, including CEO Tim Steiner, struggled for years to make
a profit but has been transformed by partnership deals with
supermarket groups including Kroger KR.N in the United States,
Marks & Spencer MKS.L and Morrisons MRW.L in Britain, Casino
CASP.PA in France and Aeon 8267.T in Japan.
Ocado’s deal with Kroger, inked in 2018, will see at least
20 automated warehouses built in the United States, with the
first due to open in early 2021. The deal was seen as key in
Kroger taking on Amazon AMZN.O .
2 Likes
If Boohoo is anything to go by, this will be an excellent buying opportunity.
1 Like
HELLO PHIL HOPE ALL IS OK… looks like the ft is on the up !!! at last. hope it stays this way . im underwater with ocado , 21% so how much should i buy to get it back near green ? which figure should i use to calculate price? current price ? market price ? also do you guys have a good bank etf as i can see banks are now picking up steam ? thanks steve
Also am a holder of Ocado and I’ll keep doing dca on it the next couple of years, I still believe nothing has really fundamentally changed the investement case apart from more added risk from the autostore patent thingy.
I personally don’t like bank ETFs as a lot of banks are just stagnant growth-wise and loosing to fintech. I personally like ING, BNS and JPM all for different reasons though.
yes i went for buying the 4 stocks them selves 2 usa and 2 canada . for dividends i like those !
theres just been some big negative moves on many stocks at usa open …
Anyone still buying Ocado, seems like today was a bit over reaction
Under ÂŁ10, may be? or Too greedy? lol
1 Like
My position is at -25% however once my alert sound at ÂŁ10 am going in heavy, cant sit on the side-lines and watch a similar amazon success story pass me by.
1 Like
(Sharecast News)
Ocado surged on Thursday amid speculation it could be a takeover target for Amazon.
According to The Times, there has been talk the London-listed online supermarket is being eyed up by technology heavyweights such as Amazon. It was understood that Amazon could be looking at an 800p-a-share takeover bid, with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan acting for the bidders.
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "Ocado has fallen out of favour with investors lately, trading down 40% over the past 12 months even after today’s jump, attracting potential opportunistic interest from parties looking to pounce on its depressed share price.
"It was a stay-at-home stock market winner during the pandemic with shares surging in 2020, however the economic reopening ever since has prompted a downward trendline to emerge with many investors unwinding their holdings.
“In February its full-year losses mushroomed to $604 million, below analysts’ expectations, despite its joint venture with Marks and Spencer and its US partnership with Kroger as cost-of-living pressures on the consumer as well as elevated cost inflation and expensive energy bills take their toll.”