Today eBay announced the completion of a tender offer for all outstanding common shares and American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of Gmarket. Back in April, eBay announced that it was spending $1.2 billion to acquire those shares.
Gmarket is known as Korea’s leading eCommerce business, and it will apparently be combined with eBay’s existing online marketplace in Korea, Internet Auction Company.
“The combination of Gmarket and IAC establishes an exceptionally strong leadership position for eBay in one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and innovative e-commerce markets,” says eBay CEO John Donahoe said upon the original announcement. “This deal creates strong operational synergies between the two market leaders, offers more opportunities for sellers and enhances our ability to serve complementary consumer segments.”
eBay shares details of the transaction:
Based on information provided by Citibank, N.A., the ADS Depositary for the tender offer, and Goodmorning Shinhan Securities Co., Ltd., the Common Share Depositary for the tender offer, a total of 50,496,693 common shares and ADSs, representing approximately 99.2% of the currently outstanding common shares and ADSs, were validly tendered and not withdrawn (including 557,006 common shares and ADSs tendered by guaranteed delivery procedures) in exchange for a purchase price of U.S. $24.00 per common share and per ADS, net to the seller in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes. All common shares and ADSs that were validly tendered and not withdrawn have been accepted for payment in accordance with the terms of the tender offer.
eBay also announced that it will provide a subsequent offering period of 25 business days for all common shares and ADSs that weren’t tendered in the initial offering period. that offering expires on July 20th, unless it gets an extension.
Research from IDC indicated a while back that Korea is the 6th largest eCommerce market in the world. According to those findings, only the US, Germany, the UK, China, and Japan are ahead.