Ebay is planning to sell off its South Korean business as it continues to undergo a major strategic overhaul of its business.
According to a press release published yesterday, Ebay has “initiated a process to explore, review, and evaluate a range of strategic alternatives for its Korea business”.
This is understood to be part of Ebay’s wider strategic review, launched in 2019, which aims to “maximise value for its shareholders and create future growth opportunities for the business”.
It comes just six months after Ebay finalised its sell off of Gumtree in a deal worth over $9 billion to Adevinta, which will now become the world’s largest classified ads business.
The deal also saw Ebay become the company’s largest shareholder with a substantial 44 per cent stake.
READ MORE: Ebay sells Gumtree in $9bn deal which will create the worlds largest classified ads business
This comes amid increasing pressure from activist investor groups Elliott Management and Starboard Value, which purchased a stake in Ebay and introduced members to its board in early 2019, to make changes in the face of growing competition from the likes of Amazon and Walmart.
In March 2019 Ebay conceded and launched an in-depth strategic review of its business, with the pair pushing it to offload its ticket sale business StubHub and its classified-ads business and focus on its core marketplace offering.
This culminated in the shock departure of its chief executive David Wenig in September who said it was clear he was “not on the same page as my new board”, and the $4 billion (£3.15 billion) sales of StubHub to rival Viagogo in November 2019.
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