Home Depot ponders buying XPO Logistics

2018 has begun with a rash of rumours about the possibility of US retail behemoth Home Depot making a bid for XPO Logistics, which is being valued by analysts in the $9bn region. The reason given is that the Home Depot board has been looking at how to defend its business from the Amazon threat and concluded that a large-scale investment in logistics might be key, according to this report from Recode. It’s a fascinating idea, but probably likely to remain just that, says this post from Freight Waves, which cites analyst Stifel as claiming the deal won’t go ahead for two reasons: Home Depot only accounts for 3-4% of XPO’s revenues; and secondly XPO is sitting on a huge pile of cash, and there’s very little point in buying money