“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. We expect many eBay customers will enjoy great deals on international fashion brands by joining the brands4friends community.”

Germany’s largest online shopping club, brands4friends sells high-quality goods from renowned fashion and lifestyle brands at significantly reduced prices to members through limited special offers on a daily basis.

Founded in 2007, brands4friends has approximately 3.5 million members in Germany, and has held a wide variety of campaigns with more than 600 top brands, including international fashion brands such as Buffalo, Calvin Klein and Diesel. The company, which employs approximately 200 people, is headquartered in Berlin.

“We want to give our customers the best possible fashion experience online,” said Doug McCallum, Senior Vice President for eBay in Europe. “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. We expect many eBay customers will enjoy great deals on international fashion brands by joining the brands4friends community.”

Online shopping clubs are a fast growing part of the online fashion market, and now account for approximately 20 percent of online fashion sales in Europe, according to eBay’s own research.

“eBay is the perfect partner for us,” said Sergio Dias, Chief Executive Officer of brands4friends. “We are able to bring our retail and brand competence and industry knowledge to eBay, and we can expect to benefit from eBay’s traffic and ecommerce experience to accelerate the growth of our shopping community.”

In the last 18 months, eBay has invested heavily in its fashion business, improving its online shopping experience and opening the eBay Outlet in the U.K. and Germany, offering eBay customers the ability to buy direct from leading fashion brands. eBay has also partnered with brands for flash sales and Daily Deals at significant discounts for customers and launched a global Fashion iPhone application that lets consumers buy fashion items via their mobile devices. Globally, top designers have also created exclusive fashion collections for eBay customers.

As part of the deal eBay will assume brands4friends’ equity interests in U.K. shopping club SecretSales.com and in Japan, brands4friends.jp.

The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval among other conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011. eBay does not expect this acquisition to have a material impact on its 2011 financial results.

Allen & Company is serving as financial advisor to brands4friends.

Source: eBay USA