EBay Reportedly Eyes Sale of Classified-Ads Business

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – EBay is looking to offload its classified-ads business, with several suitors believed to have expressed an interest, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

EBay (NASDAQ:) was up 2% on the news.

Its classifieds business, which could fetch about $10 billion, has been under strategic review over the past year, with eBay considering a range of options including a sale, spinoff or joint venture.

TPG and Blackstone (NYSE:), Naspers and Axel Springer SE have recently expressed interest in the classified-ads business, according to the report.

The review was borne out of pressure from two activist hedge funds, Elliott Management and Starboard Value, who urged the company to sell its assets and cut costs to turn around performance.

Elliott previously said eBay) shares could be worth $55 to $63 by the end of 2020 if the company adopted its recommended measures, including asset disposals.

“It is critical to recognize that eBay’s sustained underperformance is not due to a lack of potential or a poor end-market. Instead, we believe that eBay) has missed a number of actionable growth opportunities while distracted by non-core endeavors,” wrote Elliott Management partner Jesse Cohn. “These have been meaningful financial disappointments in their own right, but the larger cost was the diversion of attention from Marketplace.”

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