Information Security & US & Life & Love & Fashion & Hacking & Passion

EBay Inc. said Wednesday it plans to pay as much as $1.2 billion to purchase a majority stake in South Korea's top online marketplace.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay ( EBAY - news - people ) and Gmarket ( GMKT - news - people ) said that eBay will make a cash tender offer of $24 a share to purchase all outstanding common shares and American Depository shares in Gmarket Inc. If successful, eBay said it would take a stake of at least 67 percent in Gmarket.

The release said the agreement calls for eBay to combine Gmarket with eBay's existing online marketplace in South Korea, Internet Auction Company.

"This deal creates strong operational synergies between the two market leaders, offers more opportunities for sellers and enhances our ability to serve complementary consumer segments," John Donahoe, eBay's president and chief executive officer, said in the release.

EBay said in September it received preliminary conditional approval from South Korean regulators for its potential purchase of a stake in Gmarket.

The venture is the latest for eBay into the online auction market outside the United States.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

What the new top diplomat will--and won't--get out of her Asian tour.

Hillary Clinton, breaking recent tradition, will go to Asia on her first trip abroad as secretary of state. Beginning the middle of this month, she will visit Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. The last stop on her itinerary will be China. China was also the last stop on Madeleine Albright's maiden trip in 1997 when she started in Europe and worked her way east. Both Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell visited Europe and the Middle East on their first foreign visits.

Rich in symbolism, first trips are always important. To her credit, Mrs. Clinton is making Tokyo her initial stop. As she told the Senate last month, "Our alliance with Japan is a cornerstone of American policy in Asia."

Despite their importance, the Japanese have come to doubt their relationship with the U.S., and ties became strained toward the end of the Bush administration. They were worried about many differences they had with Washington--such as those over North Korea--but their real concern was that America would eventually abandon them in favor of the giant next door.

Indeed, it was Mrs. Clinton's husband who started the "Japan passing" fear by going to Beijing in 1998 and skipping Tokyo. The State Department, always concerned about angering the Chinese, said that Mrs. Clinton chose Tokyo for her first stop due to "scheduling" reasons, but that's not how the rest of the world sees it.

Yet few outside Japan will be watching when the secretary of state touches down in Tokyo. For one thing, Japan looks like it is in the midst of a historic political transition. The odds are that both Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Liberal Democratic Party will be out of power by September, the deadline for the next election for the Diet's lower house.

The Jakarta and Seoul stopovers will also be largely ignored by the global community. It is only when the planet's lone superpower pays a visit to its most populous nation that the world will start paying attention.

The meeting, though, is less important than most observers assume. Just about every American these days worries that China will stop purchasing Treasury debt, which will be issued to fund the Obama administration's planned stimulus package--and its other spending requirements.

The Chinese have played upon this American anxiety, most recently at the end of last month when Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking in London, suggested that President Obama would like to know what Beijing will do in this regard.

Yet there is not much Mrs. Clinton can say to her Chinese hosts that will affect how much U.S. Treasury debt they decide to purchase. As a practical matter, Beijing needs to park most of its dollar earnings from exports in safe dollar-denominated instruments. And as Chinese exports fall--forecasts for last month indicate they dropped 14% after recording declines in November and December--Beijing will buy fewer Treasuries. Mrs. Clinton, to avoid signaling that Beijing has leverage, could surprise the Chinese and skip this topic altogether.

There are other issues to talk about, of course, but, as the Bush administration discovered after seven years of intensive discussion, it is unlikely the Chinese can be persuaded to do anything they would not otherwise have done on their own.

For example, China does not look like it will substantially change long-held policies supporting the regimes in Iran and North Korea. Chinese currency tactics are largely set, as are positions on the Doha Trade Round and access to China's domestic markets. And there will be no movement on Taiwan.

Human rights, a perennial topic, is almost beyond discussion these days as Beijing has dug in its heels. Unless Mrs. Clinton is prepared at this early stage to make drastic concessions or apply unprecedented pressure, she will not make significant progress this month.

There are a host of things China wants--a giveaway of environmental technology is on the list, as is more information sharing with the Pentagon--but the better strategy is to have the Chinese come to Washington to ask for them, rather than have Mrs. Clinton go to China to hand them out.

The Obama administration has not even named its ambassador to Beijing or had time to formulate China policy, so the secretary of state's trip to the Chinese capital looks premature. In fact, it appears as if the new top diplomat is going to Beijing at this moment less to pursue policy objectives than to get a head start on consolidating her grip on China policymaking inside Washington.

Mrs. Clinton's most important scheduling mistake is not that she's going to China, however. It is the stopover that is not on the itinerary. If she wanted to go to Asia early in her tenure--and that is a generally sound strategy--she should have reserved time for New Delhi.

India shares values with the U.S. as well as strategic goals. The relationship is promising, and there is much to discuss. The secretary of state would be surprised how much she could advance relations with the Indians—and how much progress she could make with the Chinese if they saw her talking to the nation they fear the most.

South Korea's central bank carried out its biggest interest rate cut ever Thursday, slashing borrowing costs by a full percentage point to a record low in a bid to stave off possible recession.

The Bank of Korea said it was slashing its benchmark seven-day repurchase rate to 3 percent from 4 percent during a regular policy meeting Thursday.

It was the fourth time for the bank to lower the rate in the past two months and exceeded the 0.75 percentage point emergency cut on Oct. 27, previously the largest one.

The rate has gone from 5.25 percent to 3 percent since the cycle of easing began on Oct. 9.

The previous record low for the bank's benchmark rate was 3.25 percent last seen in October 2005.

South Korea's economy slowed in the third quarter and economists are predicting it could falter further next year amid global economic weakness.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

South Korea's economic growth was slower in the third quarter than originally estimated, the central bank said Tuesday, further evidence that Asia's fourth-largest economy is being hit by the global meltdown.

Gross domestic product grew 3.8 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period last year, revised down from the preliminary 3.9 percent expansion announced in October, the Bank of Korea said.

The bank also said that the economy expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, down from October's estimate of 0.6 percent growth.

Economists have been lowering their 2009 growth estimates for South Korea given its exposure to the global economic slowdown as a major exporting nation. The economy is expected to slow considerably, with some even predicting it could experience its first contraction in more than a decade.

The official revision to third-quarter economic growth came one day after the government announced that exports fell in November by the most in nearly seven years and automakers took steps to cut production as vehicle demand slumps amid the weak global economy.

Exports dropped 18.3 percent in November from the same month last year to $29.26 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Imports fell 14.6 percent to $28.97 billion for a trade surplus of $297 million.

The ministry cited economic doldrums overseas related to the world financial crisis for the decline in exports. Falling prices for crude oil and other natural resources reduced the value of imports.

The ministry said that exports of South Korean auto-related products slumped 30.8 percent in November.

The November fall in exports was the biggest since December 2001 when they slid 20.4 percent, according to Kang Myung-soo, a ministry official.

Separately, the South Korean unit of General Motors Corp. began an extended production shutdown at one of its four domestic plants.

Production at GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co.'s No. 2 plant in the city of Bupyeong, near Seoul, stopped Monday as planned and will not resume until Jan. 5, according to Park Hae-ho, a company spokesman. GM Daewoo plans to close down three other plants from Dec. 22 through Jan. 4.

The company is South Korea's third-largest automaker, trailing Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.

Hyundai, meanwhile, said Monday it was slashing overtime for the first time since 1998.

Spokesman Ki Jin-ho said that the company had decided there was no need for overtime work and weekend shifts in December at six of the company's seven plants in South Korea amid weak overseas and domestic demand.

TOKYO, Oct. 19 -- To shore up a tumbling stock market and a troubled currency, South Korea announced Sunday it would guarantee $100 billion of foreign debt and supply $30 billion to banks and exporters in urgent need of dollars.

Amid a global financial crisis, South Korea has emerged as perhaps the most vulnerable major economy in Asia, despite plenty of foreign reserves in its central bank and booming exports to China, India and the Middle East.

The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's placed five major South Korean banks on a watch list last week, citing their problems in finding dollars to pay back foreign currency loans. President Lee Myung-bak has pleaded with citizens to stop hoarding dollars and "refrain from greedily pursuing private interests."

Still, finance and central bank officials in Seoul had resisted the kind of sweeping guarantees to banks and financial institutions that have been offered in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in Asia. They had repeatedly said that the fundamentals of their country's economy were strong -- and blamed the foreign press for exaggerating financial problems.

On Sunday, though, the government conceded that fear has trumped fundamentals. South Korea's currency, the won, is down 30 percent against the dollar this year, making it the biggest loser among major world currencies. The stock market has fallen 38 percent. Panicky foreign investors have pulled more than half their holdings out of South Korean stocks.

"As other major economies start providing guarantees to inter-bank loans, the Korean government will take similar measures to avoid placing domestic banks at a comparative disadvantage in terms of overseas funding and to allay fears in the financial markets," a government statement said.

The central bank will guarantee, up to $100 billion, foreign-currency loans made by domestic banks between Monday and the end of next June, the government said. It estimated that these banks already owe about $80 billion on loans that come due before the end of next June.

The Bank of Korea has about $240 billion in foreign exchange reserves and will make $30 billion of it available to local banks that have been increasingly desperate in recent months to find dollars to pay back foreign currency-denominated loans, the government announced.

The loan guarantees require approval from the country's parliament. Until that comes, the government said that the Korea Development Bank or Korea Eximbank will cover the new commitments.

To prop up the struggling stock market and investment firms, the government said it "will provide tax incentives for long-term holdings of funds." And to help small- and medium-sized business, many of which have failed to find credit in recent months, the government said it would make an investment that should release about $10 billion in loans.

Unlike many other countries, however, South Korea decided not to increase the amount of bank deposits that are guaranteed by the government.

Korea's problems with finding dollars grew steadily more alarming this year, even as its exports boomed. Exports are up 28 percent in the first nine months of 2008, according to the Ministry of Finance.