Online wine retailer eVineyard Friday says it is acquiring Wine.com including the Wine.com and Wineshopper.com URLs, and other assets of the Napa-based company’s service for an undisclosed amount.
With this purchase, Portland-based eVinyard is expected to extend its wine delivery area to legally sell wine in 27 U.S. states and Japan and deliver wine-related merchandise to the other 23 states.
“This (acquisition) is an affirmation that the eVineyard business model, that of a legally licensed wine retailer, is the only truly viable model in the space,” says eVineyard CEO Larry Gerhard.
eVineyard currently has 50 employees. That number is expected to increase as the company adds more people to its customer service and operations divisions.
Some industry analysts had predicted the ultimate consolidation of the online wine retail space as much as three years ago. A recent Solomon, Smith, Barney report estimates that the online wine retail market would be worth some $1.5 billion of the estimated $15 billion wine market by 2003.
Gerhard says eVinyard’s current customers should notice little if any disruption in their purchase or delivery. Wine.com customers in 13 other states will have access to accessories at this point, and steps will be taken to meet their wine needs at the earliest possible date.
Currently, eVineyard is legally licensed to sell and ship wine in the following states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin