日经特写：松下收购Blue Yonder五年仍未盈利，但无新增信息

OSAKA -- Five years after Japan's Panasonic Holdings acquired Blue Yonder, the U.S.-based provider of supply chain management (SCM) software has yet to rack up profits in line with its massive price tag.
After Panasonic bought Blue Yonder in 2021 for $7.1 billion, a series of acquisitions followed to bring on more capabilities and improve service.
Blue Yonder in 2023 acquired U.K.-based Doddle, a provider of product return management software, to have tools for improving efficiency up and down the supply chain.
In 2024, the Panasonic unit bought One Network Enterprises, gaining access to a network of more than 150,000 businesses, mostly in the U.S.
Akira Sakakibara, chief technology officer at Panasonic Connect -- of which Blue Yonder is a subsidiary -- expressed confidence in the lineup assembled through these acquisitions.
"It's nearly complete in terms of the combination of functions," he told Nikkei in July.
Sakakibara sees Blue Yonder's ability to integrate warehousing, logistics and production planning to optimize entire supply chains as a competitive advantage. The next step is to broaden the range of client industries and accumulate successes, he said.
While Blue Yonder excels at production management for assembly lines, it needs to improve capabilities for process industries such as chemicals and for trade-related functions. Expanding into those markets "will require deep industry expertise and contracts with customers that can serve as strong reference cases," Sakakibara said.
It also has had to adapt to the rise of generative artificial intelligence. Building on its system-of-record platform, which stores vast amounts of customer data, Blue Yonder is developing AI agents capable of demand forecasting and managing inventory and shipments.
Blue Yonder's services are delivered as a software-as-a-service model, but the spread of generative AI has led to predictions of a "SaaS-pocalypse," with AI replacing traditional business software. Sakakibara sees this shakeout as an opportunity.
"We're not waiting for the SaaS-pocalypse. We're the ones pushing ineffective SaaS out of the market," he said.
Early on, Panasonic Connect prioritized connecting factory-floor equipment with cloud-based systems to create autonomous supply chains. But generative AI has shifted software investment to AI agents that accelerate business operations.
"The whole game has changed," Sakakibara said.
Blue Yonder is developing what it calls "autonomous SCM," in which AI generates demand, supply and logistics scenarios. But Sakakibara said that decision-making will not be left entirely to AI.
"No matter how intelligent AI becomes, humans remain responsible," he said.
Blue Yonder symbolized Panasonic's effort to transform from a manufacturing group into a software-oriented business with recurring revenue streams. Yet Blue Yonder posted an adjusted operating loss of 31.1 billion yen, ($195 million), for the fiscal year ended March, with another loss of 26.7 billion yen forecast for the year ending March 2027.
Panasonic's overall results have been better. Its products for data centers, such as storage batteries, have benefited from the global construction boom in AI infrastructure. The group expects to post record net profit for the fiscal year ending March. Its share price has been rising since around autumn 2025, reaching an all-time high Aug. 14.
But markets remain skeptical about Blue Yonder.
Blue Yonder's "revenue growth has been sluggish, and we don't see too many synergies," said Shoichi Arisawa, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities. The company has continued to make growth investments and acquisitions, so "it's about time for management to clearly explain its future prospects, direction and how it plans to strengthen the business," he added.
Arisawa said Panasonic's broader transition to a recurring-revenue model is also uncertain, making Blue Yonder crucial to whether the strategy succeeds.