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Kalahari.com

Historical online retailer combined with Takealot in 2015, in a transaction that also changed the principal shareholders’ interests.

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Kalahari.com was an online retailer of consumer goods and a separate business from Takealot before their 2015 merger. The Competition Commission’s January announcement identifies the two operations and describes the connected acquisition and shareholder changes. [2]

History

Naspers’s Digital Horizon report places Kalahari in South Africa’s late-1990s wave of digital platforms. That gives historical context, but this page does not assign an exact founding date or unverified personal founder. [3]

On 6 January 2015, the Competition Commission announced conditional approval of the proposed merger. Takealot would acquire Kalahari and the transaction’s principal investors would hold equal shareholdings in the combination. Takealot’s timeline confirms the merger in 2015. [2][1]

Employment conditions and the continuing business

The Commission limited merger-related retrenchments to no more than 200 employees. It also required a training or reskilling fund for affected employees. The limit is not a verified count of actual retrenchments. The approval announcement does not establish that every permitted job reduction occurred. [2]

The merger did not make Kalahari the original name of Takealot. Takealot’s predecessor was Take2, acquired in 2010. Kalahari’s separate history and later combination explain why both predecessor records are retained. This is a historical business record, not a claim that an independent Kalahari retailer still operates. [1][2]

Frequently asked questions

Did Takealot start as Kalahari?

No. Takealot launched after the Take2 acquisition. Kalahari merged with it later, in 2015. [1]

Was the merger approved without conditions?

No. The Commission’s January 2015 announcement included employment and reskilling conditions. [2]

Key milestones

  1. Digital Horizon places Kalahari in the late-1990s online-platform wave. [3]

  2. Competition Commission announced conditional merger approval. [2]

  3. Merger with Takealot recorded in the group’s history. [1]

Related articles

Related institutions

  • Naspers — South African group incorporated in 1915, transformed through internet investment and retaining voting control of separately listed Prosus.
  • Takealot — South African e-commerce business launched in 2011 after the Take2 acquisition, later combined with Kalahari and brought under Naspers control.
  • Take2 — Historical e-commerce business acquired by Kim Reid and Tiger Global in 2010, before the formal Takealot.com launch in 2011.
  • Tiger Global Management — New York investment firm and historical financial backer of Takealot, involved in the Take2 acquisition and subsequent funding.

Sources

  1. Takealot Group, Our Journey: Take2 acquisition, launch, investment and Kalahari merger. Original source. Accessed 2026-10-18. ↩
  2. Competition Commission South Africa, Statement on merger decisions, 6 January 2015: Takealot and Kalahari, page 1, 2015-01-06. Original source. Accessed 2026-10-18. ↩
  3. Naspers, Our Digital Horizon: The Economic Opportunity of Digital Platforms in South Africa 2024, page 46. Original source. Accessed 2026-10-18. ↩