Amazon deals yet another huge blow to Blue Apron
(Amazon and Jeff Bezos delivered another blow to the much-maligned Blue Apron after filing a trademark application for meal kits.Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The hits just keep on coming for Blue Apron.
After already suffering the indignity of trading below its offering price every day since its initial public offering 2 1/2 weeks ago, the meal-kit retailer now faces a new hurdle — and surprise, surprise, Amazon is once again the culprit.
The Jeff Bezos-led juggernaut filed a trademark application on July 6 for "prepared food kits," as reported by TheStreet.com's Laura Berman early Monday morning.
Blue Apron's stock sank 11% to $6.57 as of 9:53 a.m. ET. It now sits roughly 34% below its IPO price of $10 a share.
It's just the latest Amazon-fueled hit absorbed by the flailing Blue Apron, which took a cleaver to its IPO range in the week before pricing following Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods. Many potential investors identified the possibility of more competition in the food-delivery industry and ran the other way. As such, Blue Apron trimmed its IPO range to $10 to $11 a share, down from $15 to $17.
Blue Apron's current price, however, looks downright bullish compared with the $2-a-share price target it received from Northcoast Research, the first Wall Street firm to weigh in on the company.
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While Blue Apron is perhaps the most extreme example, its plight highlights the unfortunate reality facing many companies in the retail industry: Amazon is coming, and there's nowhere to hide.
(Blue Apron has had a tough run since it priced its initial public offering.Markets Insider)
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