The Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) share price is trading lower on Tuesday despite the release of an announcement.
At the time of writing, the retail conglomerate's shares are down 1% to $41.20.
What did Woolworths announce?
The Woolworths share price is under pressure today despite announcing the successful completion of its Quantium transaction this morning.
According to the release, this transaction has strengthened its partnership with the data science and advanced analytics business, increasing its shareholding from 47% to 75%. Woolworths paid $223 million for the additional stake.
What is Quantium?
Quantium is a world-class data science and advanced analytics business that has been helping Woolworths and its supplier partners to make customer-first decisions across pricing, ranging, and promotions.
It has been growing exponentially in Australia and internationally since Woolworths' original investment back in 2013.
Why did Woolworths increase its stake?
Woolworths' CEO, Brad Banducci, believes that advanced analytics is becoming incredibly important for businesses and expects Quantium to help unlock value.
Commenting on the investment in April, Mr Banducci said: "Advanced analytics is key to improving the experiences, ranges and services we provide to our customers and the support we provide to our teams and suppliers. The way we gather data, interpret it, and protect it, is becoming ever more important."
"Through this transaction, we aspire to bring together Quantium's advanced analytics capability and Woolworths Group's retail capabilities to unlock value across our entire retail ecosystem. By working better together, we aim to transform the rapidly evolving retail sector, helping us better service our customers and support our team and supplier partners," he added.
Quantium will now form part of Woolworths Group, and a new business unit called Q-Retail is being established. Q-Retail will bring together Quantium and Woolworths Group's collective data science and advanced analytics capabilities with a focus on delivering against the company's advanced analytics aspirations.
The Woolworths share price is up 18% over the last 12 months.
