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eBay aims to strengthen focus on core business as competition builds

The site known for its auctions has shifted to more fixed price sales, but can’t compete with Amazon.

The eBay headquarters in San Jose, California in 2014.
The eBay headquarters in San Jose, California in 2014.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

eBay is set to sell ticket firm StubHub to the Swiss ticket vendor Viagogo for about $4 billion. For almost a year, eBay has been under pressure from activist investors to focus on its core business in the face of slowing growth. While eBay was once on a par with Amazon, it’s ceded much of its market share to the ecommerce behemoth. Elsewhere, apps for secondhand goods with more user-friendly mobile interfaces, like Poshmark and Mercari, have been able to compete favorably in the online auction space.

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