Dive Brief:

• Tokyo-based Rakuten, Japan's largest e-retailer, has acquired e-commerce app Slice at an undisclosed price.

• Palo Alto, CA-based Slice, launched in 2011, has 70 employees and had raised more than $30 million from investors.

• Slice is a mobile app that organizes online purchases, tracks shipping and order history, sends notice of price drops, and makes the information searchable. It's free to consumers. For retailers who pay to participate, it gleans large amounts of customer data.

Dive Insight:

The move allows Rakuten to move more strongly and swiftly into the U.S. and to take on the likes of Amazon and eBay, something CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has been open about wanting to do.