BREAKING: Metra - Telkom Agree to Form Joint Venture with eBay to Save Plaza

We just received news that one of Telkom's subsidiaries, Metra, has signed a partnership agreement with eBay this morning in Jakarta. The two companies agreed to establish a new company (Joint Venture) to handle Plasa's operations, while Metranet, the company currently running Plasa, will shift their focus to running the news portal PlasaMSN.

We also heard that both Metra and eBay (represented by their company in Korea) agreed to set up another new company with the largest shareholdings owned by Metra (60%) and eBay (40%).

We have been long heard rumors about the planned sale of Plasa to eBay but the deal didn't go as planned. Previously, eBay had set up their office in Jakarta in anticipation of their business expansion in Indonesia and talked further with Telkom for a possible strategic partnership. We also heard that both Metra and eBay failed to reach an acquisition agreement due to valuation issues. So the agreement did not reach a meeting point.

With Plasa's slow movement in recent months, it becomes very realistic that drastic and strategic steps are needed to save the company E-commerce this. Plasa itself is supported by Telkom and received funding of approximately $4 million to promote their services and educate the local market about the benefits of E-commerce, both for traders and buyers.