Korean internet giant Naver is set to buy US fashion retailer Poshmark for $1.2 billion.

South Korean billionaire Lee Hae-Jin Naver, the country’s largest Internet company by market capitalization, has agreed to buy US fashion e-commerce platform Poshmark for $1.2 billion, marking the tech giant’s global expansion.

In the deal, Naver will buy all of Poshmark’s shares for $17.90 in cash, a 15% premium to the stock’s closing price a day earlier — but less than half of the online retailer’s price of $42 in its IPO last January. Poshmark will become an independent subsidiary of Naver, with the existing management team led by its founder and CEO, Manish Chandra.

“Bringing Naver and Poshmark together immediately puts us at the forefront of creating an innovative, socially responsible and sustainable shopping experience designed around shoppers of all sizes and needs,” Naver CEO Choi Soo-Yin said in a statement.

In the year Founded in 1999 by Lee and Kim Jung-ho, both former engineers at Samsung, Seongnam-based Naver hosts Korea’s largest search engine, as well as the Naver-branded messaging service. In the year In the second quarter of 2022, the group posted 2 trillion won (about $1.4 billion), up 23 percent year-on-year. E-commerce plays a growing role in Naver’s growth, bringing in $440 billion in sales that quarter, up nearly 20 percent year over year.

However, the Korean tech company is looking to grow its presence in the US as part of its global expansion, the company added in a statement. Naver’s assets outside Korea include Los Angeles-based online graphic novel platform Webtoon Entertainment and Toronto-based Wattpad, an online literature and advertising website Naver bought for $600 million in May last year.

The acquisition is the biggest deal yet for Choi, 41, who became the youngest and first woman to take the helm at Naver in March this year. In May, Choi announced that Naver aims to double its annual sales to $12.2 billion and build a “global business ecosystem” in Japan, North America and Europe to reach 1 billion monthly active users. The company says it currently has an average of 700 million users, ranking it ahead of competitors like Kim Beom-soo Kakao, the company behind the popular Korean messenger KakaoTalk.

With Naver’s support, Poshmark will pursue a broad international expansion strategy in the medium term, expanding into other developed markets in Asia. In the year Founded in 2011, the Poshmark app and website allows users to list second-hand or new clothing for sale. Other resale platforms such as Depop and Japanese billionaire Shintaro Yamada’s Mercari support messaging between users with “likes” and comments on items.