David RichardsHarvey Norman + Dick Smith Online Back End Up For Sale
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EBay is set to sell eBay Enterprise the owners of Magento the Company that powers some of Australia’s largest retail web sites including the backend of the Harvey Norman web site.
Among other users of the Magento retail software offering are Bing Lee, Dick Smith, Winnings Appliances and Big Brown Box as well as IKEA and several leading International brands who sell into Australia.
Private-equity firm Permira is tipped as the organisation that is interested in buying eBay Enterprises for a reported around $900 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal, which was being finalized early today, could be announced as soon as Thursday US time (Friday Australian time) when eBay is scheduled to release second-quarter financial results.
EBay also plans to complete the spinoff of its PayPal payments unit on Friday.
EBay has been seeking a buyer for the Enterprise unit, which helps power online retail sites for companies such as Harvey Norman, IKEA , since at least January, when it said it also could also spin it off.
The unit suffered a blow last week when Toys “R” Us one of its larger customers, said it would take its U.S. business in-house by mid-2016.
An eBay spokesman declined to comment. New York-based Permira didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the Wall Street Journal EBay also been in talks recently with private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners LP to sell the unit for as much as $1 billion.
Resolving the fate of eBay Enterprise, formerly known as GSI Commerce, is among the final loose ends the company hoped to tie up before its new life as a stand-alone company.
The roughly $900 million price would be less than half the $2.4 billion that eBay paid in 2011 for the unit. In the hopes of securing a deal, eBay had extended the prior deadline of June 30 to Wednesday, one of the people said. The people said there was no guarantee a deal would be reached.