E-commerce company eBay said it was selling its enterprise business to a consortium led by private equity firm Permira for $925m, as it streamlines its operations ahead of the separation from PayPal Holdings.
EBay also yesterday evening reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and boosted its share buyback plan by $1 billion.
The deal leaves eBay with its slow-growing marketplace business, which faces stiff competition from rivals such as Amazon.com. Analysts, however, were bullish on eBay's prospects as a standalone company.
EBay's enterprise business, the company's smallest, was formerly known as GSI Commerce.
The business, which eBay purchased in 2011 for $2.4 billion, helps retailers strengthen their online presence and e-commerce capabilities.
The business has since lost customers and seen sluggish growth in the past few years as retailers increasingly move their online operations in-house.
The unit suffered a blow this month when ToysRUs, one of its largest customers, ended a near decade-long contract to launch its own online platform.
The sale was announced alongside eBay's second-quarter results, where it reported a 7% jump in net revenue. Sales were driven by higher demand in the PayPal business it plans to spin off.
PayPal is slated to begin trading separately on the Nasdaq on July 20, creating a new company that some analysts say will be worth $40 billion.
Revenue in the company's marketplace business fell 3%, hurt by a strong dollar. Excluding the impact of currency, revenue rose 5%.
Based on proceeds from the enterprise business sale, the company recorded an impairment of goodwill of about $786m. It said it expected the deal to close later this year.
EBay earned 76 cents per share in the quarter. Net revenue rose to $4.38 billion from $4.10 billion.
Analysts on average expected the company to earn 72 cents per share on revenue of $4.49 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
