Naver completes U.S fashion marketplace Poshmark purchase for $1.2 billion

[Source : Naver]

South Korean internet giant Naver Corp. completed its buyout of Poshmark, a U.S-based online marketplace for secondhand fashion goods, for approximately $1.2 billion.

The buyout is less than 2.3 trillion won Naver estimated when the buyout deal was announced on Oct. 4, 2022. The acquisition cost has come down as the won regained strength against the U.S. dollar.

Naver received approval from its board of directors on the buyout on Oct. 3 and from Poshmark‘s shareholders at the general meeting on Dec. 27. Its corporate combination was approved in the U.S. on Nov. 18.

For the buyout, Naver set up Proton Parent, a special purpose acquisition company. The SPAC completed the acquisition process on Thursday. As Poshmark has become part of Naver, it delisted itself from Nasdaq.

Naver initially planned to complete its acquisition of Poshmark by early April. The company is said to have rushed the deal to ease investors’ concerns over the high acquisition cost.

Poshmark is a leading consumer-to-consumer e-commerce site in North America with 80 million registered users, made largely of young consumers.

Naver expects Poshmark to help it globally expand its C2C business. The company is grooming to lead its mainstay business, e-commerce.

C2C is a business model where customers purchase goods and services from other customers via a third-party platform.

On top of Poshmark, Naver invested 74.8 billion won ($54.5 million) in Singapore’s secondhand marketplace Carousell in 2020, and 155.0 billion won in Spain‘s top reseller platform Wallapop via venture capital firm Korelya Capital in February 2022.

On Friday, shares of Naver are trading 0.3 percent lower at 185,500 won ($146.93) at 2:04 p.m. in Seoul.