ICE is offering $ 30 billion for eBay, The Wall Street Journal reported. This became known in early February 2021.
Ebay’s capitalization is currently estimated at $ 28 billion. The Intercontinental Exchange is interested in eBay’s main asset, an online retailer. In this way, ICE will be able to apply its technological expertise in eBay-based seller-buyer communication.
This is not the first ICE takeover proposal for an online platform. Now the management of eBay is studying the proposal received, negotiations on the deal are not underway.
After the news, Ebay shares rose 7%.
Intercontinental Exchange is a large exchange operator that, over 20 years of operation, has gathered a holding company from platforms for trading derivatives and OTC instruments, such as ICE and LIFFE (where key for the oil market Brent oil futures, contracts for natural gas, LNG, interest rates, stock indices, bonds, etc.), clearing houses, as well as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). ICE acquired the NYSE in 2012, acquiring the US-European exchange operator NYSE Euronext and then spinning Euronext into a separate company. In 2016, ICE studied the possibility of a takeover of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), but refused – largely due to the high probability that the deal would be blocked by antitrust authorities.