eBay sells classifieds business to Norwegian company

eBay has struck a deal with Norwegian Adevinta to sell it its classified ads business for $9.2 billion.

Nerijus Adomaitis reported the news for Reuters:

Ebay Inc (EBAY.O) has agreed to sell its classified ads business to Norwegian group Adevinta ADEV.OL in a deal worth $9.2 billion, creating the world’s largest classifieds group, the companies said on Tuesday.

Ebay will receive $2.5 billion in cash and 540 million shares of Adevinta, making it the largest shareholder with a 44% stake of the pro forma company, they said.

Bloomberg’s Spencer Soper wrote:

Adevinta beat out Naspers Ltd.’s Prosus NV and a private equity consortium that included Blackstone Group Inc., Permira and Hellman & Friedman, who’d also been pursuing the unit, people familiar with the matter had said. The bid from Oslo-based Adevinta, which operates a number of online marketplaces across Europe and Latin America, got a surprise boost because EBay wanted to keep a significant stake in the business, people said.

Ahead of the deal, TechCrunch’s Catherine Shu noted:

Activist shareholders Elliot Management and Starboard Value LP have pushed eBay  to sell off non-core business units to focus on its marketplace, resulting in the sale of StubHub to viagogo for more than $4 billion last year and the appointment of a new chief executive officer.

Ebay’s classifieds division operates mostly outside of the United States, including in Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia and Mexico. If Adevinta  ends up acquiring it, it can expand its international portfolio of peer-to-peer e-commerce platforms.