eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) will be taking over Gmarket, an online e-commerce company based in South Korea through a $1.2 billion deal.  As part of the deal Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) will be selling their 10% share in Gmarket to eBay.  The $1.2 billion will give eBay a 67% controlling stake in Gmarket.  eBay’s offer is at $24 per share.  This is 20% more than the closing price of $19.96 on the NASDAQ yesterday.

Gmarket would be rolled into Internet Auction Co., the Seoul-based company eBay owns.  This move more than doubles eBay’s sales footprint in South Korea.  Gmarket’s revenue was about $210 million last year.  The value of the goods sold on their website increased 23% over the last year.  In the fourth quarter, eBay made about $1.27 billion.

Interpark Corp., another major shareholder in Gmarket sold their 14.6 million shares to eBay for $350 million as part of the agreement.  After the deal closes, eBay plans to de-list Gmarket from the NASDAQ.  However the auction company plans to spin out Skype through a separate IPO sometime in the next year.

[via Bloomberg]