Effective November 16, 2021, EMERGE Commerce Ltd. ("EMERGE") (TSXV: ECOM), a diversified acquirer and operator of e-commerce brands, closed the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding shares of Retail Store Networks, Inc. (dba, "WholesalePet.com") for a purchase price of up to US$25 million, comprised of US$12 million in cash, US$2 million in EMERGE common shares, US$2 million in deferred consideration payable over 2 years, and contingent earn-out consideration of up to US$9 million over a 2-year period.

WholesalePet.com, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading technology-enabled B2B ecommerce marketplace, connecting over 8,000 independent retail locations with over 400 independent pet vendors, offering over 1 million SKUs. 

Gowling WLG advised EMERGE with respect to this transaction with a team that included Ian Palm, Radhika Vaidyanathan, Andrew Griffin and Lee Sykes (corporate/M&A), Reed Taubner and Alexander Ross (IP), and assisted by student-at-law Patrick Chen.