James Delahunty
21 Dec 2010 0:28
eBay Inc., the world's online auction giant, has announced it will buy Germany's largest shopping club, Brands4Friends.
The company will acquire Brands4Friends to boost its position in the European markets in a deal worth $200 million. It will obtain Brands4Friends' equity interests in SecretSales.com, a UK shopping site and in the Japanese brands4friend.jp service.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, and eBay said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial results for the year.
Brands4Friends was founded in 2007 and employees around 200 people at present. It boasts 3.5 million members in Germany and sells fashion and lifestyle brands including Diesel and Calvin Klien.