#eBay planning sale of classifieds arm to Norwegian firm Adevinta

eBay plans to sell its classified ads arm to Norwegian e-commerce firm Adevinta as it strips away segments outside its core online marketplace, a new report says.

The two companies are close to a deal that would see Adevinta buy eBay’s classifieds business in a cash-and-stock takeover that could be announced as soon as Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It’s uncertain how much Adevinta is planning to pay but the segment is expected to fetch at least about $8 billion — which is similar to Adevinta’s entire market value, the paper reported Monday.

Adevinta, which runs digital marketplaces in 15 countries in Europe, Latin America and North Africa, declined to comment on the reported talks. eBay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

eBay’s stock price jumped almost 1.5 percent in premarket trading to $58.99 as of 8:30 a.m.

eBay’s classifieds business — which lets local advertisers list goods and services like on Craigslist — largely comes from Canada, Mexico, Africa, Australia and parts of Europe, according to the Journal. The unit raked in about $1 billion in revenue last year, compared with about $8.6 billion for eBay’s core marketplace where merchants list and sell products, according to the company’s latest annual report.

eBay has been slimming down to focus on the marketplace segment amid pressure from activist investment firms Starboard Value and Elliott Management. The latter firm has argued that eBay’s other businesses had become too much of a distraction.

The San Jose, California-based company similarly announced plans in November to sell its StubHub ticket marketplace to European competitor Viagogo for about $4 billion in cash. The deal was completed in February.