Adevinta

History

2021: eBay sold its stake in Adevinta to Permira

As it became known in July 2021, eBay sold a stake in the online ad service for $2.25 billion. The company agreed to sell part of its stake in Adevinta ASA to Permira.

The sale of 125 million shares is expected to close in the 4th quarter and reduce eBay 's share in the Norwegian digital market from 44% to 34%. This is part of an agreement with Austrian regulators to reduce the stake in Adevinta to 33%.

eBay sold a stake in Adevinta to Permira

Regulators have carefully studied this deal between eBay and Adevinta, worth $9.2 billion eBay, have already offered to sell its UK business to Gumtree, as well as an Internet site under the www.motors.co.uk domain, in order to gain approval in the UK. The deal became the largest in Norway in more than 10 years and significantly increased the size of Adevinta, which was separated from the Scandinavian media conglomerate Schibsted ASA.

Initially, Adevinta bypassed larger competitors, as well as a consortium of private investors, which included Permira, in a deal to acquire an online ad business eBay for cash and shares last year. The Oslo company used its small size to its advantage by offering a significant number of its shares to secure the deal, which gave eBay a significant stake in the new company and the opportunity to continue to profit from the growth of the advertising business.

Adevinta's share is sold at $18 per share, which is about 10% less than the value of Adevinta securities on the eve of the announcement of the deal by eBay. The price is a discount of 7% to the weighted average price for 10 days, the company told eBay.

The document emphasizes that eBay also provided Permira with an option to buy about 10 million more shares at the same price, and in this case, when the option is realized, the eBay share in Adevinta will be reduced to 33%.^[1]

Notes