eBay buys German fashion shopping site Brands4friends

By Geoff Duncan December 20, 2010

Online auction firm eBay is looking to expand its footprint in international online retailing: the company has just announced an agreement to acquire Germany’s Brands4friends, which claims to be Germany’s largest online shopping club for “fashion and lifestyle” that offers discounts and daily deals to more than 3.5 million members. eBay will be paying €150 million (about US$200 million) to acquire all shares of the company.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

“We want to give our customers the best possible fashion experience online,” said eBay’s VP for Europe Doug McCallum, in a statement. “With the acquisition of brands4friends, we will enter the online shopping club market with an established and dynamic partner who has the expertise, relationships, and passion to match our own ambition.”

As part of the acquisition, eBay also takes over Brands4friends’ stakes in the UK shopping club SecretSales.com as well as the Japanese version of Brands4friends.

The move bolsters eBay as European online fashion retailer; in the last year and a half the company has launched eBay Outlet sites in the UK and Germany, and has been working with designers to make collections available exclusively to eBay customers. eBay says its research shows that online fashion clubs like Brands4friends already account for about 20 percent of all online fashion sales in Europe, and that the company already generates more than $5.4 billion a year in sales of clothing, shoes, and fashion accessories worldwide.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

The XPS 16 is fighting an uphill battle against the MacBook Pro

Dell XPS 16 sitting on desktop with flowers.

It took a few years, but Dell finally updated the design of its two largest XPS laptops. The XPS 15 gave way to the XPS 14, while the XPS 17 was replaced by the XPS 16. The latter gained the ultramodern look of the XPS 13 Plus, complete with a glass palm rest, a hidden haptic touchpad, and a row of LED function keys.

It's a significant update but places the XPS 16 in direct competition with the Apple MacBook Pro 16. That's an excellent matchup with proven performance and battery life and an elegant design that's solid, if a lot more conservative.
Specs and configurations

Computing

These 4K monitors are discounted at Best Buy — from $200

The Sony InZone M9 sitting next to a PlayStation 5.

A 4K monitor is a great way of enjoying an enhanced image as you work with more pixels, higher resolutions, and often better colors too. Over at Best Buy, there are some great monitor deals squarely focused on all things 4K. There are dozens of 4K monitors in the sale so the smart move is to hit the button below to see what’s there for yourself. If you want some help though, we’re here. We’ve picked out a few highlights in the sale so take a look for yourself.

What to shop for in the Best Buy 4K monitor sale
Samsung makes some of the best monitors around so why not start with the ? It’s currently reduced by $150 so it costs just $200. Its IPS panel looks great with AMD FreeSync support effectively eliminating screen tears and stutters. There’s also HDR support which brings with it some great looking colors while wide viewing angles mean it looks great from any perspective.

Computing

9 best processors for PC gaming: tested and reviewed

The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D installed in a motherboard.

It's tough to find the right gaming CPU for your next PC. We've benchmarked dozens of processors to find the best CPU for gaming, and there's a clear winner right now: AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Although the latest chip from Team Red claims the crown, there are still several other great options on the market.

Whatever your needs and budgets, though, we have options from AMD and Intel that will be great performers. We're focused on gaming here, but if you want a processor that can game and get work done, make sure to check out our list of the best processors.