OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Adevinta and U.S. e-commerce group eBay aim to sell three smaller British units in order to obtain regulatory approval for a long-planned tie-up of their global classified ads businesses, the two firms said on Tuesday.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month said Adevinta and eBay would have to resolve the watchdog’s concerns before proceeding with their $9.2 billion deal.
In response to the CMA’s concerns, Adevinta and eBay proposed to sell each company’s primary classifieds operations in Britain, known as Shpock, Gumtree and Motors.co.uk.
“The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it considers there are reasonable grounds to believe that the remedies presented by Adevinta and eBay address their concerns,” the companies said in a statement.
Adevinta and eBay said they aim to close their transaction in the second quarter of 2021, subject to final ratification of the plan by the CMA and receipt of outstanding regulatory approval in Austria.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Louise Heavens)
