Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
DJIA	15,387.60	+52.30	0.34%
S&P 500	1,669.16	+2.87	0.17%
Nasdaq	3,502.12	+5.69	0.16%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

DJIA

15,387.60

+52.30

0.34%

S&P 500

1,669.16

+2.87

0.17%

Nasdaq

3,502.12

+5.69

0.16%

Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
STOXX 50	2,821.65	-2.85	-0.10%
FTSE 100	6,803.87	+48.24	0.71%
DAX	8,472.20	+16.37	0.19%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

STOXX 50

2,821.65

-2.85

-0.10%

FTSE 100

6,803.87

+48.24

0.71%

DAX

8,472.20

+16.37

0.19%

Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
Nikkei	15,550.30	+169.30	1.10%
Hang Seng	23,366.40	-126.66	-0.54%
S&P/ASX 200	5,167.80	-12.26	-0.24%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

Nikkei

15,550.30

+169.30

1.10%

Hang Seng

23,366.40

-126.66

-0.54%

S&P/ASX 200

5,167.80

-12.26

-0.24%

EBay to Buy Brands4friends to Boost Fashion Sales

By Armorel Kenna - 2010-12-20T13:11:45Z

EBay Inc., the largest e-commerce marketplace, agreed to buy Brands4friends, Germany’s biggest online shopping club, to increase fashion sales in Europe.

EBay will pay $200 million in the deal, the San Jose, California-based company said today. EBay will also gain Brands4friends’ equity stakes in U.K. shopping club SecretSales.com and in Japan’s brands4friends.jp.

Online shopping clubs account for about 20 percent of Web fashion sales in Europe, EBay said, citing its own research. EBay gets more than $5.4 billion annually from fashion sales.

“The move is designed to strengthen EBay’s position as a leading online fashion destination in Europe,” the company said.

The 3.5 million registered club members at Brands4friends in Germany are eligible to buy goods from clothing and “lifestyle” brands at reduced prices.

“We are optimistic about the outlook, especially for fashion, where the switch to online from offline continues,” Stephan Zoll, head of EBay Germany, said in a telephone interview today.

The focus for now will be on Germany, said Zoll, adding that EBay “will be able to leverage Brands4friends’ expertise internationally.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Armorel Kenna in Milan at akenna@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net.

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