EBay to buy German online shopping club for $200 million

Dec 20 - Web commerce company eBay Inc said it is to buy brands4friends, Germany's largest online shopping club, for about $200 million (150 million euros) to strengthen its position in Europe.

As part of the deal eBay will assume brands4friends' equity interests in UK shopping club SecretSales.com and in Japan's brands4friends.jp, it said in a statement.

Ebay said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its 2011 financial results

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

Brands4friends, which has about 3.5 million members in Germany, sells goods from fashion and lifestyle brands including Buffalo, Calvin Klein and Diesel.

The Berlin-headquartered company was founded in 2007 and employs about 200 people, eBay said.

(Reporting by Abhinav Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)