Gold Prices Rebound as U.S. Tariffs, Fed Policy and Iran Talks Drive Market Sentiment 
OpenAI Hires Former Meta and Apple AI Leader Ruomin Pang Amid Intensifying AI Talent War 
Australian Dollar Rallies on Hawkish RBA Outlook; Yen Slips as BOJ Faces Political Pressure 
Trump Warns Iran as Gulf Conflict Disrupts Oil Markets and Global Trade 
Trump Orders Federal Agencies to Halt Use of Anthropic AI Technology 
Asian Markets Slide as Nvidia Earnings, U.S.-Iran Tensions and AI Valuations Weigh on Investor Sentiment 
BOJ Signals Possible April Rate Hike as Ueda Eyes Inflation and Wage Growth Data 
PBOC Scraps FX Risk Reserves to Curb Rapid Yuan Appreciation 
Pentagon Weighs Supply Chain Risk Designation for Anthropic Over Claude AI Use 
U.S. Stocks Rally as Nvidia Earnings Loom, Oil Prices Near Seven-Month Highs 
Samsung Electronics Stock Poised for $1 Trillion Valuation Amid AI and Memory Boom 
Bank of Korea Holds Interest Rate at 2.50% as Growth Outlook Improves Amid AI Chip Boom 
Paramount Skydance to Acquire Warner Bros Discovery in $110 Billion Media Mega-Deal 
U.S.-Canada Trade Talks Resume as Trump Administration Reviews USMCA 
Nintendo Share Sale: MUFG and Bank of Kyoto to Sell Stakes in Strategic Unwinding 
Stock Market Movers: Dell, Block, Duolingo, Zscaler, CoreWeave, Autodesk, Rocket, MARA 
Lynas Rare Earths Shares Surge on Strong Half-Year Earnings and Rising Global Demand 
Shinsegae’s Emart will not be taking over eBay Korea after the local antitrust regulator finally approved the hypermarket chain’s acquisition plan. The approval was announced on Friday, Oct. 29, so the deal will now certainly push through.
According to The Korea Herald, Korea’s Fair Trade Commission stated it has reviewed and assessed if Emart’s acquisition of eBay Korea would breach any of the country’s regulations related to monopoly. The commission also checked if the companies could obstruct competition in five sectors of the retail industry, such as the online markets and physical retail businesses.
It was in June when Emart agreed to acquire an 80% stake in the Korean unit of eBay, and the value was ₩3.44 trillion won. It then submitted an application for approval at the FTC on July 21. Now the decision is out, and the regulators did not find any issues with the acquisition.
Initially, many raised concerns over the merger deal as they could dominate the market but based on the decision, there is no need to worry about it. This means that competition among the players in this industry will remain fair.
Also, after the antitrust watchdog reviewed the deal, it determined that it may actually help drive a new kind of competition in the retail business. Likewise, Korea Joongang Daily reported the FTC concluded the deal would not limit competition in e-commerce or other related markets but rather, it may give positive results.
“We concluded that concerns for limiting competition in all these categories of business are low,” the publication quoted the FTC as saying in a statement. “As a latecomer, SSG.com’s market share only stands around 3 percent, so the business combination with eBay Korea will not raise its market share significantly.
Finally, the agency added that there is no dominant online shopping business in the domestic market yet, so it is not seeing any issue with Emart’s takeover of eBay Korea. FTC also suggested that the new competition that will arise from this acquisition deal is more beneficial because it is likely to strengthen and boost online competitiveness by traditional offline retailers.
