The long-anticipated sale of eBay Enterprise is finally complete.
eBay announced yesterday (Nov. 2) it completed the sale of its Enterprise group to a consortium of buyers led by Sterling Partners and the Permira Fund for a total of $925 million.
The consortium of buyers has separated eBay Enterprise into four distinct businesses:
The spinoff of its enterprise unit has been anticipated since it was first announced during eBay’s Q1 — a quarter that revealed what most already knew: PayPal was surging, while eBay Marketplace continued to sag.
It was announced in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings in January that eBay was “exploring strategic options for eBay Enterprise, including a sale or IPO.”
“Enterprise is a strong business and a leading partner for large retailers, managing mission critical components of their eCommerce initiatives. However, it has become clear that it has limited synergies with either business and a separation will allow both to focus exclusively on their core markets, as we create two independent world class companies,” the company said in its release at the time.
While the company’s executives didn’t share much during the initial announcements about the potential sale or spinoff of the unit, which manages online sales efforts for other businesses, then CEO John Donahoe mentioned the mix between the Enterprise business, PayPal and eBay Marketplaces doesn’t fit — particularly once the two companies split. The decision to potentially split off its Enterprise side comes at a time when eBay’s Marketplaces is struggling due to what CFO Bob Swan called an increase in the competitiveness in omnichannel and eCommerce markets.
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