SKorea approves eBay's purchase of top online shopping mall
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea Thursday gave a conditional green light to Internet auction site eBay to acquire Gmarket, the country's top online auction and shopping mall.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) authorised eBay to buy a 36 percent stake in Gmarket from Interpark Corp and Interpark chairman Lee Ki-Hyung, a spokesman for the anti-trust watchdog said.
"Despite concerns over the impact on the country's open market, the FTC approved the deal as most Internet-based markets are easily accessible and new competitors may emerge at any time in online markets," the spokesman said.
The online auction site plans to raise its stake to more than 50 percent through purchases in the stock market, the FTC said.
If it does so it would control 87 percent of South Korea's fast-growing Internet auction market as it already operates its own Korean unit Auction, the commission said.
The FTC said it was therefore attaching some strings to the deal.
A merged entity would be prevented from increasing its commissions on sales for the next three years. The increase in charges for new memberships and advertisements would be linked to inflation.
Gmarket is estimated to be worth 1.1 billion dollars. The price tag for eBay's controlling stake of 36.3 percent has not been disclosed.