Approval Given for eBay Gmarket Bid
Published September 26th, 2008
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog granted Thursday conditional approval for U.S. online auctioneer eBay Inc.’s bid to buy into South Korean online retailer Gmarket Inc.
Interpark Corp., the parent company of Gmarket, said last month it had filed for approval with the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on a possible stake sale to eBay and that the parties have held talks concerning an undisclosed amount of shares.
The FTC said in a statement that it will approve the deal under the condition that the companies ban themselves from raising sales commissions for the next three years and limit increases in ads and other fees to below the local inflation rate.
Gmarket and Internet Auction Co., eBay’s South Korean unit, when combined would control 87.2 percent of the local online customer-to-customer market. Nasdaq-listed Gmarket runs customer-to-customer sites and has more than 10 million registered users in South Korea.
