eBay completed the previously announced sale of its enterprise unit. The new owners paid $925 million and have further separated the unit into four distinct businesses.
- Enterprise Operations & Enterprise Technology Services is owned by Sterling Partners.
- The Magento Commerce Technologies business is owned by the Permira Funds.
- The Marketing Solutions business is owned by the Permira Funds.
- The CRM business is owned by the Permira Funds.
Permira, an international private equity firm, acquired Magento Commerce, and in partnership with Banneker Partners, it acquired the Marketing Solutions division of eBay Enterprise.
Mark Lavelle, formerly senior vice president at eBay Enterprise, will lead Magento Commerce Technologies as its new CEO. The flagship open-source Magento platform powers over 240,000 sites globally and supports over $50 billion in gross merchandise volume annually.
Lavelle said, “During our time as a division of eBay, Inc., we grew revenue fivefold, made significant investments in our core platform and added innovative mobile and omnichannel products. Now, we will build on this momentum – continuing to innovate with speed and at scale while we put renewed focus on expanding our market leadership with stronger emphasis on our global network of system integrators, technology partners and developer community.”
Sterling Partners, a growth-oriented private equity firm, together with Longview Asset Management, announced that the former enterprise services division of eBay Enterprise will be integrated with operations of Innotrac Corporation, a Sterling portfolio company, “to become one of the world’s leading independent Omni-Channel Commerce providers.”
The integration will take place after the 2015 holiday season and will be rebranded next year. The combined operations portions of eBay Enterprise and Innotrac will have more than 7,500 employees, operate 27 distribution centers and six customer service sites across North America and Europe, and offer leading platforms in the areas of omni-channel ship from store, software, order management, payments, tax, and fraud solutions globally.
Tobias Hartmann, previously the Vice President and General Manager of the enterprise services division of eBay Enterprise, will serve as president of the new company.
Zeta Interactive acquired the customer relationship management (CRM) division within the Marketing Solutions division of eBay Enterprise – including the email, hosted database, and attribution businesses.
eBay had acquired GSI Commerce in 2011 for $2.4 billion, and it acquired Magento in 2012 for an undisclosed amount after having acquired a 49% stake for $22.5 million in 2011. It rebranded the unit to eBay Enterprise in 2013 before Carl Icahn began pushing for the breakup of eBay.
In July, eBay Enterprise lost Toys R Us as a client, though it said the toy retailer would continue to use its ship-from-store and in-store pickup technology.
