e-Commerce firm eBay said that it will buy Germany’s largest online shopping club brands4friends for about $200m in cash, to bolster its business in Europe.
The acquisition, which eBay says will not impact it finacial results in 2011, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2011, according to Reuters.
As part of the agreement, eBay will acquire brands4friends’ stake in British shopping club SecretSales.com as well as the stake in Japan’s brands4friends.jp.
The footprint of eBay in Germany is second largest after the US, accounting for $1.14b, or 13%, of its total net revenue in 2009.
The mature e-Commerce market in Germany could pose more difficult and costly for eBay to win new shoppers in the country, according to the company, which indicated e-commerce sites Quelle and Otto as its main competitors in the country.
Brands4friends sells goods from fashion and lifestyle brands including Buffalo, Calvin Klein and Diesel, for discounts of as much as 70%, Reuters reported.
Ebay, which has about 3.5 million members in Germany, estimated that online shopping clubs now make up 20% of Internet fashion sales in Europe.
