eBay announced plans to raise $1.5 billion, while Alibaba is rumored to be looking to borrow about $4 billion. One obvious use of such debt would be to acquire companies – could this be a good time for ecommerce players looking to be acquired?
eBay recently raised $750 million, and now it’s offering more notes totaling $1.5 billion.
As it did then, eBay again says it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, “which may include capital expenditures, share repurchases, repayment of indebtedness and possible acquisitions.”
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal said Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is in discussions with banks for a loan of up to $4 billion to fund expansion plans, including acquisitions, citing people familiar with the matter.
There is a lot of speculation about what Alibaba might acquire with the money, including this column from Forbes that speculates Alibaba could be interested in buying back its shares from Yahoo.
One rumor we haven’t seen lately is whether Alibaba could be interested in acquiring eBay – that was an idea many people were tossing around a year ago.
