Adevinta Acquires eBay Classifieds Group for $9.2 Billion

Cleary Gottlieb is representing Schibsted ASA (Schibsted), the current majority shareholder of Adevinta ASA (Adevinta), in Adevinta’s $9.2 billion acquisition of eBay Classifieds Holdings Inc. (eBay Classifieds) from eBay Inc.

Cleary is also acting as global antitrust counsel to Schibsted and Adevinta in the transaction. Schibsted will, as part of the same transaction, acquire eBay Classifieds’ leading marketplaces DBA.dk and Bilbasen.dk in Denmark.

The transaction, announced on July 21, 2020, will create a worldwide leading online classifieds company, with market presence in 20 countries and a total of 3 billion visits every month.

Adevinta will pay total consideration of approximately $9.2 billion for the acquisition of eBay Classifieds, consisting of $2.5 billion in cash and 540 million Adevinta shares. Schibsted will acquire eBay Classifieds Denmark for a consideration of $330 million. Following completion of the transaction, eBay and Schibsted will hold, respectively, a 44% and 33% shareholding in Adevinta.

The transaction is conditioned upon shareholder approval, as well as approval by competition authorities.

Both Schibsted and Adevinta are listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Cleary acted as U.S. and U.K. counsel to Schibsted and Adevinta in the 2019 spin-off and offering of shares of Adevinta.

For more information, please see the official press releases here and here.