Updated 6/20/11
eBay Inc. has completed its previously announced acquisition of GSI Commerce, Inc. and it is my great pleasure to be one of the first people to officially and publicly welcome them on board.

The stockholders of GSI approved the adoption of the merger agreement with eBay at the special meeting of stockholders held this past Friday and the merger became effective later that day.

eBay acquired all of the outstanding shares of GSI’s stock for $29.25 per share in cash, or total consideration of approximately $2.4 billion. GSI Commerce will operate as a separate business unit led by Chris Saridakis as its newly appointed president who will report directly to eBay CEO and President, John Donahoe.

Be sure to add the GSI Commerce blog to your blog roll (if you haven’t done so already) and follow along on Twitter @GSICommerce.

Cheers!
RBH

Original post 3/28/11
eBay just announced that it has agreed to acquire GSI Commerce, a leading provider of online commerce solutions and interactive marketing services, for $29.25 a share, or total consideration of approximately $2.4 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

As some of you know I am currently traveling for work so am unable to provide you with a “Behind the Scenes” Ink video interview at this time but will be sure to put one together when I’m back in the office to find out more info beyond the press release.

In the meantime, eBay will host a conference call at 8am PT today to discuss the announcement. A live webcast of the conference call, complete with slide presentation, can be accessed out our IR site: http://investor.ebayinc.com. You can also check out the eBay to acquire GSI Commerce press release and our Changing Shopping website for more info as to how this fits into eBay’s overall business strategy and what it means for all buyers and sellers.

Important to note that eBay will divest 100% of GSI’s sports licensing businesses and 70% of ShopRunner and Rue La La.

eBay believes these businesses are not core to eBay’s long-term growth strategy. These assets will be sold to a newly formed holding company, which will be led by GSI founder and CEO Michael Rubin. GSI will be managed as a separate business unit of eBay, led by Chris Saridakis.

I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the team over there (I’ve worked very closely with at least one person in the past already) and am excited to get the opportunity to share and leverage social and digital media strategies already in place with both companies.

I’ll update as I get more info.

Cheers,
RBH