eBay Korea: Kakao, Lotte, SK Telecom, Emart bidding to acquire the e-commerce platform

eBay Korea has been placed in the market since the start of this year. It is still not sold, but major South Korean companies have stepped up to bid for its purchase.

Yonhap News Agency reported that some of the country’s top companies, such as SK Telecom Co., Kakao, Lotte Group, and Emart Inc., have been announced as part of the preliminary bidders to acquire the e-commerce site.

The bidding price prediction

Since big well-known firms have submitted preliminary bids to buy eBay Korea, it was predicted that the deal could possibly reach KRW5 trillion or about $4.42 billion. Industry insiders believe that this huge bidding could bring a groundbreaking change to the highly competitive e-commerce market.

The preliminary bids for the Korean unit of eBay that also operates large-scale online shopping stores, including G9, Gmarket, and Auction, happened after major companies started eyeing M&As (merger and acquisition) as well as business cooperation as this is one way to stay afloat in the country's retail and e-commerce trade.

Which is the strongest candidate to acquire eBay Korea?

Lotte Group, a retail giant in the country, and the leading discount store Emart Inc. are good candidates. MBK Partners is also bidding, and if it could acquire eBay Korea, it could link it to its home-grown Homeplus business, a popular discount store retail chain.

Kakao is a potential investor, and with its aim to expand to its e-commerce business, it is expected to bid aggressively to acquire eBay. However, observers in the industry see Shinsegae’s Emart and Lotte Group as the strongest candidates to be eBay Korea’s next owner.

Meanwhile, the selling process for eBay Korea started in January. This comes after the company’s U.S. headquarters decided to eliminate some of its units that are underperforming due to the pandemic. The HQ explored its options to keep the company going, and unfortunately, it decided to give up its Korean branch.

"eBay has initiated a process to explore, review and evaluate a range of strategic alternatives for its Korea business," Bloomberg quoted the company as saying at that time. "The company is considering options that would maximize value for its shareholders and create future growth opportunities for the business.