Yahoo acquired a 10 percent stake in Gmarket on Wednesday, paying $60 million to Oak Investment Partners, a venture firm that owns most of the popular South Korean e-commerce and auction site.
Despite Yahoo and eBay’s recent alliance to defend against Google in the United States, Yahoo has been aggressively competing with eBay in Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and Japan (see Yahoo, eBay Ally on Ads).
Those moves have caused fierce competition between Yahoo and eBay in Asian markets. Now the rivalry will extend to South Korea, one of the most wired nations in the world.
Yahoo shares climbed $0.34 to $31.04 in recent trading, while eBay shares rose $0.86 to $32.45.
On Tuesday Seoul-based Gmarket filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signaling that it soon plans to go public and trade American depository shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol GMKT. Gmarket’s IPO could raise as much as $100 million.
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