Curtains close on Kalahari.com

The transaction was structured in such a way that the business of Kalahari.com was transferred to Takealot Online, with Naspers and Tiger Global Management each owning 42% of the new merged entity.

Management remains in the hands of Takealot's current co CEOs, Kim Reid and Willem van Biljon.

"From the outset of the transaction it has been the intention to operate as one brand, one site and one business and the past four months has been used to evaluate and restructure the business to ensure a smooth transition and ensure minimum customer disruption," says Reid.

All Kalahari.com customer accounts have been migrated to takealot.com along with their transaction history and valid credits. All undelivered orders will be fulfilled in due course and all relevant product warranties will be honoured in accordance with the normal practice at Kalahari.com.

The Kalahari.com brand has been part of the South African online retail landscape for many years. It was one of the early pioneers of online retail in South Africa since its launch in 1998. There have been many Kalahari.com milestones, exciting advertising campaigns, highs and lows shared along the way and many will be sad to see the brand disappear.

"We welcome all the Kalahari.com employees who have joined takealot.com while acknowledging the hard work that went into building the brand and business. We look forward to their continued input and experience as they join us in building out takealot.com into the premier online shopping destination on the African continent," says van Biljon.

A set of FAQs has been developed to deal with all relevant customer queries relating to the merger and the closure of the Kalahari.com website; these can be found at justmerged.takealot.com.