High-flying online auction house eBay has priced its previously- announced secondary offering of 6.5 million shares at $170, positioning the sale to raise $1.11bn and make it the largest internet offering to date. Of the shares offered, 4.25 million are being offered by the company – netting it $722.5m before expenses – with the other 2.25 million being sold by existing shareholders.
Goldman Sachs & Co and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter are acting as lead underwriters for the offering and eBay says it expects that the shares will be delivered to them on April 16. The selling stockholders have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 975,000 additional shares to cover over- allotments. eBay has already said it plans to use the proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes but now adds that it will earmark some of the cash for international expansion.
