Popular European Shopping Club Site Is Ebay's Second Major Acquisition in a Week
As its second acquisition in a week, Ebay has bought Berlin-based German shopping club site Brands4friends. The £127m deal will include Ebay having an equity stake in the Japanese version of the site, brands4friends.jp, as well as in the UK shopping club secretsales.com.
Senior Vice-President for Ebay Europe, Doug McCallum, commented, "With the acquisition of brands4friends, we will enter the online shopping club market with an established and dynamic partner who has the expertise, relationships and passion to match our own ambition."
Ebay will now have access to a further 3.5m users approximately. Brands4friends employs 200 people and is Germany's largest private sales fashion shopping club.
This latest move follows last week's Ebay acquisition of mobile app developer Critical Path which results in Ebay doubling the size of their mobile team. Sold for an undisclosed sum, the buy is aimed at boosting their mobile commerce activity.
These two major acquisitions demonstrate Ebay's bold expansion plans as a major player in the online consumer sales market.