Rakuten , one of Japan's larger Internet portal, is trying to get into the U.S e-commerce market by
purchasing LinkShare.
LinkShare is a performance-based marketing company with the biggest affiliate network (over 500 clients).
The expected price of the purchase is 425 million dollars and LinkShare management will keep their position.
It will be interesting to see how this acquisition will influence affiliate marketing since LinkShare has 10 millions e-commerce relationships.
Of course, the number of real sales generating affiliates is much smaller, nonetheless it says something about LinkShare’s market share.
