eBay buys Net marketplace
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June 13, 2000: 5:38 p.m. ET
Online auctioneer to acquire Half.com for more than $300 million
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. agreed Tuesday to buy Half.com, a privately held online seller of used books and music, for more than $300 million in stock.
San Jose, Calif.-based eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates) will issue between 4.6 million and 5.5 million of its shares for the Philadelphia-based company, which was founded less than a year ago.
Based on eBay's closing stock price of $68 Tuesday, the deal is worth $313 million to $374 million. The pact was announced after Tuesday's market close.
eBay said the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approval, will result in "significant increases" in operating expenses for the combined company for several quarters. The acquisition is expected to begin adding to eBay's profits in 2001.
Half.com allows users to trade books, CDs, music and video games at fixed prices that are at least half the list price. The Web site has about 250,000 registered users and about 4 million items for sale, according to the company.
"Half.com's fixed-price format complements eBay's current business by giving our existing users new choices for trading," said Meg Whitman, eBay chief executive.
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eBay
Half.com
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