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The mall is now a warehouse, and Blackstone Group is betting $18.7 billion on the shift. That’s how much the alternative investment manager is paying for 179 million square feet of urban logistics properties — the warehouses used by Amazon and other retailers to fulfill orders from online shoppers.

E-commerce, growing at 15% a year, is driving a second boom in Georgia’s robust warehousing and logistics industry, which employs about 118,000 packers and material handlers across the state.

Nestle SA’s U.S. unit will lay off about 4,000 workers as it stops delivering frozen pizza and ice cream directly to stores and instead transitions to a warehouse model that’s becoming an industry standard for major food companies looking to trim costs.

Flowspace, a technology firm that helps businesses manage warehousing and fulfillment services, received $12 million in funding from an investment group led by Canvas Ventures.

Stord Inc., an Atlanta-based startup that offers a technology platform for warehouse operators to market unused space, has received $12.4 million in funding from a group of investors that includes Tom Noonan and Chris Klaus, Dynamo, Rise of the Rest Fund and Engage Ventures.

Symbia Logistics, a Colorado-based warehousing and logistics company, has acquired third-party logistics firm iD Commerce + Logistics to expand its e-commerce fulfillment footprint, according to a Symbia statement.

Kane Is Able Inc., a warehousing and distribution business in operation since 1930, announced that Harkness Capital Partners agreed to make an unspecified equity investment in the firm as part of a strategy to expand the company’s services and national presence.

The newest entrant in the nascent market for on-demand warehousing is the owner of a Chicago-based trucking company who said he wants to use technology to help reduce the time that drivers spend waiting for freight to be loaded and unloaded. Vlad Gasnikov, CEO of Business Lines of America Corp., is currently beta testing an online platform called OLIMP.