eBay Purchases Gmarket for $1.2 Billion

This week, eBay made an aggressive move in South Korea by purchasing Gmarket for $1.2 billion. Gmarket is a marketplace with a large presence in South Korea and eBay plans to align it with Internet Auction Company, a property eBay already owns that also operates in South Korea.

eBay Building (Image: Flickr)

The plan outlined by eBay has the California based company purchasing the Gmarket shares for $24 each and the company says they will acquire at least two-thirds of Gmarket’s shares. Many experts believe eBay is targeting South Korea due to its emerging market and the fact that internet commerce is the company’s specialty.

In recent weeks, eBay has made a lot of news regarding sales of their properties. They reportedly sold StumbleUpon back to its founders and they are supposedly considering a similar move with Skype. In recent years, eBay has been viewed as a company in trouble but eBay insists that their recent moves are simply an attempt to restructure and consolidate their business model.