Gold Holds Gains as Oil Prices Retreat and Fed Decision Looms 
Chinese Social Media Giant Xiaohongshu Eyes Hong Kong IPO at Over $70 Billion Valuation 
US Stock Futures Jump on Reports of Preliminary US-Iran Peace Deal Despite Fed’s Hawkish Outlook 
SpaceX Stock Gets $175 Target as Analysts See Massive Growth Ahead 
OpenAI's $34B Spending Pushes AI Market Leadership Ahead of IPO 
SK Hynix Shares Hit Record High After Shipping Next-Generation HBM4E AI Memory Samples 
SoftBank Shares Drop as OpenAI Losses and Rising Costs Spark Investor Concerns 
US-Iran Ceasefire Deal Extends Peace Talks and Eases Oil Trade Restrictions 
Asian Currencies Steady as BOJ Raises Rates and Markets Await Fed Decision 
Trump Administration Delays DeepSeek and CXMT Trade Blacklist Designations Amid U.S.-China Tensions 
Obayashi to Acquire Multiplex in $526M Expansion Deal 
HSBC Australia Faces A$35M Penalty Over Scam Protection Failures 
German Industry Employment Falls to Lowest Level in a Decade 
Carro Expands Into Australia With Acquisition of Used-Car Platform CarPlace 
Asian Currencies Stabilize as Dollar Holds Near Two-Month High After Fed Hawkish Signal 
Asian Stocks Rally as Japan and South Korea Reach Record Highs on US-Iran Peace Deal 
Qantas Nears Launch of World’s Longest Non-Stop Flights to London and New York 
Shinsegae, Emart’s parent company, was the final winner in the bid to acquire the Korean unit of the e-commerce platform eBay. Although at first, the company formed a consortium with Naver to win in the bidding, the tech company backed out at the last minute.
Still, Shinsegae’s Emart went on with the bid, and now it was reported to have already signed an agreement with eBay Inc. for the acquisition of an 80% stake in the company’s unit in Korea. It was mentioned that the deal is worth ₩3.4 trillion or around $3.05 billion.
A big shift in the e-commerce market in Korea
As per Yonhap News Agency, Shisegae reached an agreement with the American e-commerce company, and it will now have most of the controlling rights in eBay Korea. It was reported that the acquisition deal is still hinged on the Bank of Korea's (BOK) acceptance of a foreign exchange transaction.
Based on the information provided by eBay, the deal can be completed by the end of the year or early 2022. This is because the regulatory approvals are still pending. Once Shinsegae’s purchase is cleared, it will also benefit from other e-commerce companies such as Auction and Gmarket as they also operate through eBay Korea.
It was also predicted that Shinsegae’s Emart’s purchase of eBay will push a big shift in Korea’s e-commerce market and will be Coupang’s main rival from now on. The retail shopping company is also targeting to beat Naver that has its own e-commerce platform as well.
The stakes arrangement between Shinsegae and eBay
Originally, after Shinsegae acquired 80% of eBay Korea, Naver was supposed to get the remaining 20% for a full acquisition of the platform. However, since the latter has withdrawn its bid, eBay’s HQ in the U.S. will retain the remaining percentage, Pulse News reported.
It was added that this deal is marked as the largest M&A deal that was pursued by the Shinsegae Group. It is a good decision on Shinsegae’s part since it will now become the second-largest player in the local e-commerce market, besting Coupang. Naver is in the first place, but there is a chance for this ranking to change in the future, depending on how eBay Korea will do in the market from now on.
