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By Maria Armental 

PetSmart is champing at the e-bit, clinching a deal for pet products site Chewy.com.

Chewy's co-founder and Chief Executive Ryan Cohen will remain in charge of the startup, which will operate largely as an independent unit of PetSmart, the companies said.

Financial terms weren't disclosed. The deal is expected to close by the end of the second fiscal quarter.

PetSmart was taken private in 2015 by a group led by private-equity firm BC Partners for more than $8 billion. The company has been trying to expand its online market share, including a roughly $130 million deal for Pet360 in 2014.

Chewy.com, with about $900 million in sales last year, is the No. 1 online pet retailer, ahead of Amazon.com, according to analytics firm 1010data.

Founded in 2011, Chewy.com attracted investments from the likes of Mark Vadon, whose previous ventures include internet retailer Zulily Inc. and online jeweler Blue Nile, and Kevin Hoffman, Home Depot Inc.'s chief marketing officer and president of online operations, along with Volition Capital, formerly the Fidelity Ventures unit of Fidelity Investments.

Chewy, which bills itself as "your neighborhood pet store, but better," is based in Dania Beach, Fla., and has more than 5,000 employees with operations in Boston, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas and Nevada.

Meanwhile, PetSmart has more than 1,500 stores and some 55,000 workers.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2017 20:52 ET (00:52 GMT)

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