One of the e-commerce giants in the United States, eBay, was once an established Internet company in the United States, but today, eBay’s influence in the US technology market is becoming weaker and weaker than its former rival Amazon. According to the latest news from foreign media, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that the Intercontinental Exchange Company (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has contacted eBay to prepare a $ 30 billion acquisition of eBay.

According to foreign media reports, the cost of the acquisition will exceed the US $ 30 billion, representing a substantial departure from the intercontinental exchange’s traditional business direction in the financial market. The move will leverage its technical expertise in operating financial markets to further enhance the operational efficiency of eBay’s e-commerce platform.

Sources said Intercontinental’s interest in eBay’s acquisition is only preliminary and it is uncertain whether a deal will be reached.

According to an authoritative financial media report in the United States, Intercontinental Exchange is not interested in eBay’s classified advertising unit, and eBay has been considering selling the unit.

The news of the acquisition stimulated eBay’s stock price. On Tuesday, the eBay stock price closed up 8.7% to $ 37.41, with the latest market value showing at $ 30.4 billion.

However, Intercontinental Exchange’s stock price fell 7.5% to $ 92.59, bringing the company’s market value to $ 51.6 billion. Investors worry that the transaction may affect the performance of the Intercontinental Exchange.

Intercontinental Exchange and eBay declined to comment on reports of acquisitions.

Intercontinental Exchange companies, which also operate futures exchanges and clearinghouses, are currently facing pressure from US government regulators, which require them to freeze or reduce the costs of operating financial markets, and this pressure has diversified their businesses.

Intercontinental Exchange’s approach reignited investor debate over whether eBay should accelerate its pace out of the classified advertising business. Classifieds business advertises products and services for sale on the eBay market.

Earlier Tuesday, Starboard, a well-known US radical investment agency, again called on eBay to sell its classified advertising business, saying it had not made enough progress in increasing shareholder value.

“In order to achieve the best results, we believe that the classified advertising business must be separated and a more comprehensive and aggressive operating plan must be developed to drive profitable growth in core market businesses,” Starboard Funds said in a letter to the eBay board.

Over the past 12 months, eBay’s stock price has only risen by 7.5%, while the US stock market’s S & P 500 index has risen by 21.3%.

Compared with e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Wal-Mart, eBay is mainly targeted at transactions between small sellers or ordinary consumers. In the e-commerce market, Amazon has become a giant company in the world, and Amazon has expanded to many fields such as cloud computing, becoming one of the five major technology giants. In recent years, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest supermarket, has quickly caught up with Amazon in the e-commerce field. In the Indian market alone, Wal-Mart acquired India’s largest e-commerce website Flipkart, forming a situation where Wal-Mart and Amazon monopolized the Indian e-commerce market.

In contrast, eBay’s influence in the technology market has been shrinking. A few years ago, eBay has split its mobile payment subsidiary PayPal, and PayPal has gained broader development opportunities. At the same time, it has ushered in the rapid development of mobile payment technology.

The above-mentioned starboard fund and Elliott are both well-known radical investment institutions in the United States. These institutions often purchase a large number of shares in the target company, and then obtain board seats or retail shareholder support, requiring the target company to undertake major business restructuring or spin-offs. To maximize shareholder value. For example, under the pressure of radical shareholders, Yahoo Inc. of the United States spun off and sold its business, and now it has completely disappeared from the market. Starboard Fund was also one of the aggressive shareholders that pressured Yahoo.