LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition watchdog on Wednesday approved Norway’s Adevinta’s planned acquisition of U.S. e-commerce group eBay’s classified ads business.
The Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement it would not refer the acquisition or eBay’s purchase of a minority stake in Adevinta to further investigation.
The two companies said in March they planned to sell three smaller British units in order to secure regulatory approval for a long-planned tie-up of their global classified ads businesses.
Adevinta in a statement welcomed the CMA move, and said it targeted completion of the acquisition in the second quarter this year, subject to regulator approval in Austria.
(Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)
