Sold as seen: Norwegian firm buys Marktplaats in deal with eBay

screengrab of Marktplaats home page
Photo: DutchNews.nl
screengrab of Marktplaats home page
Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch online trading website Marktplaats has been bought by Norwegian firm Adevinta.

The company paid eBay $9.2 billion (€8 billion) in cash and shares for its advertising arm, including Marktplaats, which was bought by the California-based e-commerce giant in 2004.

South African technology firm Prosus, which is listed in Amsterdam, was reported to have made a higher bid but lost out because it wanted to acquire Marktplaats outright. The deal with Adevinta gives eBay a 44% stake in the Norwegian firm.

Prosus recently missed out on another big Dutch online asset when it was beaten by Takeaway.com in the race to buy home delivery service Just Eat.

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