What's going on?

According to recent reports, eBay�s classifieds business is about to be going once, going twice, aaaand sold for almost $9 billion.

What does this mean?

eBay is most famous for its auction-based marketplace, but it was also once home to PayPal and ticket resale platform StubHub (tweet this). After �spinning off� the former in 2015, the company came under pressure from �activist investors� to sell off more of its other businesses � which led the company to ditch the latter last year.

eBay�s �global classifieds� business � think sites like Craigslist and Gumtree � is next to face the chop. And Europe�s Adevinta � itself an amalgamation of several classifieds businesses � is looking like the most likely buyer, having fended off rival bids from private equity firms and public internet conglomerate Prosus. eBay reportedly wants to keep a small stake in the company after selling the majority, and Adevinta�s flexibility seems to have won the day.

Why should I care?

For markets: Classifieds information.

With so few ongoing costs, classifieds businesses can have sky-high profit margins � but activist investors seemed to think eBay would be better off without. They argued eBay�s various segments made the company too complex, and that this was reflected in a share price that should�ve been higher than it was. They�re hoping that � besides bringing in some cash � selling off the classifieds business will make the rest of eBay simpler to assess. That should, in turn, attract more investors, push the share price up, and benefit existing investors � including the activists themselves.

Zooming out: Deals a-flying.

Oil giant Chevron announced a deal of its own on Monday: the $5 billion acquisition of Noble Energy. After getting outbid in its $50 billion pursuit of Anadarko Petroleum, the deal should help Chevron double down on its efforts in the US Permian Basin � a region popular among oil companies because it�s one of the cheapest places in the US to produce the inky delight.