Adevinta, EBay To Sell UK Units To Win Tie-up Approval

Oslo, March 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Mar, 2021 ) :Britain's anti-trust authority said Tuesday that it could greenlight the merger of the classified ad businesses of Norway's Adevinta and US e-commerce giant eBay after the companies agreed to sell UK units.

Adevinta announced in July last year that it would be acquiring part of eBay's classified ad business, paying $9.2 billion (7.7 billion Euros) in cash and shares, thereby creating the largest player in the field.

In Britain, the transaction would see Shpock, owned by Adevinta, and Gumtree, until now controlled by eBay Classified Group, come under Adevinta's umbrella.

Meanwhile, eBay's marketplace, on ebay.co.uk, would remain the biggest platform in the country for classified ads.

But since the acquisition is to be paid partially in shares, the US company would also hold a third of the voting rights in Adevinta and have seats on its board, giving it influence over the Norwegian group's decisions, Britain's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) noted in mid February.

In CMA's view this could lead to a loss of competition between Shpock, Gumtree and eBay's marketplace and leave only one "significant competitor" -- Facebook Marketplace -- in the market.

To allay these fears, Adevinta and eBay, which had been given two weeks by the CMA to suggest solutions, offered to divest Shpock and Gumtree (including Motors.co.uk) to third parties.

"There are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered by Adevinta and eBay, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the CMA," the competition authority said in a statement.

Adevinta and eBay "remain excited" about the merger, the Norwegian firm said in a separate statement, adding that they now expected to close the transaction in the second quarter of 2021.

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