Ebay to buy stake in South Korean Online Marketplace
Written by ShopOne on April 16th, 2009 in Linked News.
EBay Inc. said Thursday it plans to pay as much as $1.2 billion to purchase a majority stake in South Korea’s top online marketplace in a bid to expand its presence in Asia.
San Jose, Calif.-based eBay and Gmarket Inc. said that eBay will make a cash tender offer of $24 a share to purchase all outstanding common shares and American Depository shares in the South Korean company. If successful, eBay said it would take a stake of at least 67 percent in Gmarket.
“Asia is a very fast moving market, fast growing market,” John Pluhowski, an eBay vice president said in Seoul. The acquisition “also allows us to build a platform for growth in Korea but also in regions throughout Asia and beyond.”
Pluhowski said the acquisition is “one of the largest since the company has been acquiring companies throughout the decade.”
News of the deal comes two days after eBay said it plans to spin off its Internet communications service Skype through an initial public offering, undoing a $2.6 billion acquisition that puzzled analysts and which eBay struggled to justify.
Tags: Linked News, ebay, marketplace, south korea
