Lotte Shopping Falls Short in eBay Korea Acquisition Battle... "M&A Efforts Continue"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Lotte Group's acquisition of eBay Korea has fallen through.

According to the distribution industry on the 16th, at the eBay headquarters in the United States during the board meeting held the previous day, the Shinsegae-Naver consortium was selected as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of eBay Korea, resulting in the elimination of another bidder, Lotte Shopping.

Lotte Shopping competed with its retail rival Shinsegae until the last moment, but it is understood that they approached the amount more conservatively than Shinsegae and failed to succeed in the acquisition.

A Lotte Shopping official explained, "During the due diligence process for acquiring eBay Korea, the synergy with our company was not as great as initially expected, and additional investment and market competition costs after the acquisition are also expected to be high, so we calculated the appropriate acquisition amount from a conservative perspective."

The official added, "Although it is regrettable, we will seek ways to create differentiated value to continue growing in the e-commerce market, and will continue to review external collaborations including future M&A."

Earlier, in the main bidding for the acquisition of eBay Korea held on the 7th, Shinsegae formed a consortium with Naver and submitted a letter of intent, while Lotte Group participated alone. SK Telecom and private equity fund MBK Partners, who initially considered participating in the acquisition, did not participate in the final bidding.