JD.com bought MediaWorld, indeed he did more. The Chinese digital giant in one move has purchased Ceonomy, the German holding that controls MediaWorld, Mediaarkt and Saturn. The offer of 2.2 billion euros arrived on Tuesday 30 July, for a total of 4.60 euros per share (about 23%).
The acquisition is not only a market move, according to several experts it is the Chinese entrance to the European market. The operation involved over a thousand Ventida points and about 50 thousand employees, also in Italy.
What is JD.com
JD.com is a company with a particular business model: it controls the distribution chain directly. In fact, it has an extensive network of warehouses, over 820 and a fleet of 37,600 deliveries. This is the difference from Alibaba and Pinduoduo, even if they are still behind them by volume of transactions.
The company was founded in 1998 by Richard Lou with the name 360buy, but changes in 2013 with the current JD.com. The revenues are high: in 2023 it marked empty 1,080 billion of yuan, or about $ 150 billion.
The Acquisition Operation of MediaWorld
With its huge network of warehouses, the Chinese giant needed nothing but physical presence to complete the sale. This is how the operation on Ceonità does this: “gives” to JD.com over a thousand stores distributed in 11 European countries, including 139 mediaworld stores in Italy.
In addition, all the subsidiary of the German holding company recorded sales for 22.4 billion euros (5.1 billion online), occupying a large part of the consumer electronics segment in Europe.
JD.com in Italy with Unieuro
Not only MediaWorld: with Ceonomy’s control, JD.com also gets indirect access to Unieuro. In fact, German holding holds 23.4 % of Fnac Darty, who in 2024 purchased the Italian chain.
For this reason, in addition to Germany, the influence of the Chinese giant also extends to French and Italian markets. The completion of the operation, however, is not yet certain: it is expected for the first half of 2026, after monitoring and the green light of the European antitrust authorities.
The impact on the European electronics market and changes for workers to be evaluated. At the moment, the agreement provides that Ceconomy maintains “operational autonomy”, including its local technological stack, and that contracts, work agreements with employees and operational sites are not changed.
China conquers the EU under Meloni’s nose
Few shops and almost no change. Why then is Ceonimony’s acquisition already discussing? If it were not the Chinese giant who took this step, perhaps there would be no concerns.
Instead, the Meloni government is called to evaluate the possibility of activating the Golden Power tool (as in the case of Unicredit), blocking or inserting specific conditions for the acquisition to defend national interests. Which? Not the direct ones that would be expected: the question passes to relations with the United States and, in particular, to the position of Donald Trump, which has always been critical of China.
Could there be consequences on the duties imposed on the EU or pressure to block the operation? At the moment there is no official response from the Meloni government, who only declared that he wanted to evaluate the elements to activate the Golden Power or not.
