Ebay announced that they have won conditional approval from the South Korean watchdog agency to buy a controlling stake in the online retailer Gmarket Inc. The price was $413.
Ebay will be buying 34.2 percent of Gmarket from the largest shareholder Interpark for $24 a share. This is at a 32.5 percent premium over the closing price of $18.12. The actual final contract will be signed by Wednesday.
Gmarket is listed on the Nasdaq and trades under the symbol GMKT. Gmarket operates c2c (customer to customer) marketplaces around South Korea and has over 10 million registered members. This purchase will surely help eBay emerge as the main playing in the region. Its only other competition will be from Internet Auction Co., who also might be a decent acquisition as many rumors would say. Please note none of the Internet Auction Rumors have been confirmed.
