eBay acquires GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion

Online auction site eBay announced it has agreed to buy the ecommerce and interactive marketing firm GSI Commerce in a $2.4 billion deal. The acquisition was financed with cash, and debt and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011. As part of the deal, eBay will divest GSI’s sports merchandise business and 70 percent of ShopRunner and Rue La La. Those assets will be sold to a new holding company, led by GSI founder and chief executive Michael Rubin.

GSI, like Amazon, has the infrastructure in place to help merchants of all sizes conduct e-commerce. GSI, which is based in the Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia, Pa., assists more than 180 top brands and retailers with their websites, including Aéropostale, Timberland, Mattel, Zales and Major League Baseball. With the deal, EBay gets an order-management, fulfillment and shipping business that competes directly with Amazon's own fulfillment offering for merchants. Fulfillment centers pack up orders for shipment.