On March 30, the official list of candidates for bidding for eBay Korea was released, including E-mart, Lotte Shopping, SK Telecom, and private equity fund (PEF) operating company MBK Partners.
Among them, E-mart, Lotte Shopping, SK Telecom and others have recently publicly expressed their intention to participate in eBay's acquisition battle in South Korea. These companies will conduct on-site inspections of eBay Korea and other procedures, and are expected to propose the final acquisition price in the formal bidding to be held in May or June this year.
It is understood that eBay Korea's annual transaction volume is about 20 trillion won; the operating profit of the online mall and online business reached 85 billion won. Other media reports said eBay Korea was seeking a deal worth 5 trillion won, but it was initially believed that this price would lead to a failed bid.
In January this year, the company said in a statement that it had initiated a process to explore, review and evaluate a range of strategic alternatives for its Korean business, and the company was considering options to maximize value for shareholders and create future growth opportunities for the business.
At that time, an eBay Korea executive revealed that eBay shareholders put pressure on the Korean company to make such a choice in order to obtain immediate profits or dividends. eBay appears to be selling the platforms.
