Nordic Business Report-December 19, 2006-Schibsted ASA acquires outstanding shares of Swedish online auction portal Blocket.se (C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com Norwegian media group Schibsted ASA said on Tuesday (19 December) that it has agreed to acquire the outstanding 18.2% of the share capital of its Swedish subsidiary Blocket AB, the operator of the online auction portal Blocket.se. Schibsted is acquiring the shares from minority shareholders for a total of SEK297.2m in shares. The consideration corresponds to an enterprise value of SEK1,625m for Blocket. "One of the reasons for Schibsted to purchase the minority shares is to facilitate the use of the Blocket technology in other countries," Schibsted said in a brief statement. Schibsted, headquartered in Oslo, Norway, has 7,900 employees in 20 countries, and reported a turnover of NOK9.8bn in 2005. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and traded under the ticker SCH. One British pound (GBP) is worth approximately 13.49 Swedish kronor (SEK). One British pound (GBP) is worth approximately 12.21 Norwegian kroner (NOK). ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))