South Korea's Naver to buy Poshmark for $1.6 billion
- Dan Primack, author of Axios Pro Rata
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
South Korean tech giant Naver on Monday announced that it will buy U.S. secondhand clothing platform Poshmark for approximately $1.6 billion.
Why it matters: The merger is intended to help Poshmark expand geographically, while also introducing live streaming and image recognition technologies that could help jumpstart slowed revenue growth.
Backstory: Naver CFO Namsun Kim told Axios that his company had been "combing the market for good commerce verticals," and nine months ago first met with Poshmark at its Silicon Valley headquarters.
- The two sides initially discussed having Naver share its live commerce solution with Poshmark and help it grow into Asian markets, but the talks eventually morphed into merger discussions. "It eventually made sense to think of something grander," Kim explains.
- Poshmark didn't hire a bank to run an auction, and the companies do not anticipate regulatory review by U.S. national security authorities.
Details: Naver will pay $17.90 per share in cash for Poshmark. That represents a 15% premium to today's closing price for Poshmark stock, but a significant discount to Poshmark's $42 per share IPO price in January 2021.