Richard White and his logistics empire WiseTech had a big spending day yesterday, picking up US-based supply chain software company E2open for a cool $3.2 billion in its biggest deal to date. Since then, I’ve kicked the tires on E2open and I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth the high-price tag.

By the numbers: what did WiseTech actually buy?

WiseTech is paying US$3.30 per share in cash, equating to a US$2.1 billion ($3.2 billion in our currency) enterprise value for E2open, fully-funded by new debt. This deal marks WiseTech’s largest acquisition to date by some margin. In fact the price to acquire E2open is around 3x larger than all the money it’s ever spent on acquisitions in its history. 

So what does it get for all that coin? Wisetech says it’s a big expansion of the tech that powers its already-leading logistics software. Basically it wants to live at the heart of global trade and the management of goods going back and forth all over the world.

WiseTech says the acquisition “evolves” its vision to become the operating system that global trade runs on. E2open brings with it a pretty rich list of existing customers, too, with hundreds of thousands of connected customers, links with ocean carriers and those all-important blue chip clients who need their stuff to go from one place to another.

The company had previously flagged that it would pursue more acquisitions to accelerate product development and ecosystem reach. With E2open, it’s clear Richard White’s strategy is in full swing.

Investors love the deal.

With the ASX200 pointing slightly south yesterday, WiseTech booked an immediate 7% jump on the announcement, closing the session up 5% as some investors took their money and ran. At the time of writing in the middle of the Tuesday session, Wise continues its ascent with another 2.4% gain to just over $107 a share.

E2open’s rough seas

It’s a strategic move by White and the Wise team, to be sure. It buys them a lot of new features for its existing CargoWise platform and even greater reach. But even a cursory look at E2open’s announcements in the last few years tell an eyebrow-raising tale.

It’s a company of some-4000 employees around the world that does 18 billion transactions annually. It has over 5500 total clients and is eyeing $608 million in revenue in FY25. 87% of that revenue comes from subscriptions from long-term clients too. 

Promising numbers, to be sure, but if you take a look, you notice that the WiseTech acquisition of E2open’s business comes at the end of a so-called “strategic review” into the business. That strategic review - with no public objectives or timeline for completion - was announced in March 2024, and was undertaken to find out exactly what was going on behind the boardroom door at E2open.

Prior to the review, analysts heard in FY24 results calls that all wasn’t so swell at E2open. The SaaS company’s chief commercial officer and CFO outlined that the CEOs decision to acquire an average of two new companies a year for 14 years was leading to what he called “disruption”. 

The company’s engine room of sales people had a huge turnover problem as the E2open acquisition train rolled on, and this led to a rumbled customer base. I can understand why: getting someone new as your account rep every time you pick up the phone has to get pretty old pretty quickly.

E2open’s COO at the time also detailed how the revolving door of staff led to customer-facing clients not knowing a thing about what they were selling or supporting:

“While the company has done a commendable job of backfilling sales force gaps with new hires and transfers, I was very surprised to find such a high percentage of sales professionals, including people responsible for major clients who are new to E2open, new to the accounts they’re covering or both. In my experience, it is very challenging to execute a world-class consistent sales motion involving a mission-critical software portfolio and large sophisticated customers when salespeople are still learning the products and getting to know the customers they are selling to."

With organic growth flat, a sales force in seeming disarray and Unsurprisingly, the company adjusted its forecasts downwards as the sales engine began to stall out the whole company.

As a result, the CEO got his marching orders. 

Stock in the company dropped by almost half on the disastrous news. And spectre of the seemingly acqui-obsessed former-CEO Michael Farkelas continued to haunt E2open investors right into 2025. The company took a goodwill impairment hit of US$245 million as recently as February 2025.

Is it a lemon?

Only time will tell. But it’s clear that WiseTech didn’t acquire E2open because of its record for good corporate governance. The acquisition appears driven by the potential White and WiseTech see in its platform and list of existing clients.

It’s buying the data, the network, and the enterprise-grade software platform to extend its dominance across global supply chains. Many of the challenges E2open faced—execution, cost discipline, focus—are precisely the things WiseTech excels at.

And market experts are telling us that it’s a sound move by White and his team.

Jun Bei Liu of TenCap told Switzer Investing TV yesterday:

“I think this acquisition is good. They’re taking on debt to fund it, but it’s earnings-accretive even in year one without synergies. Including synergies, it looks very good. And the share price liked it.” 

Grady Wulff of Bell Direct agreed, calling WiseTech “a fantastic company” and “a leader in global logistics.” She noted:

“Their CargoWise product is second to none, and this acquisition—US$3.25 billion for E2open—is their biggest yet.

“We think it’s undervalued and a high-growth opportunity.”

These are not idle voices. Both Liu and Wulff have shown sharp instincts across market cycles.

Yes, E2open has had its ups and more than its fair share of downs. But WiseTech isn’t buying the past. It’s buying the platform, the data, and the ecosystem. The problems that plagued E2open—lack of scale, mismanagement, integration challenges—don’t go away overnight. But now, they belong to someone who might be able to fix them and point their proverbial ship away from the rocks.

Was it a lemon? If you looked only at the recent history, maybe. The more important question is: does Richard White know the recipe for lemonade?