South African media giant Naspers is set to acquire European online auction house Tradus, formerly QXL Ricardo, for close to £800 million (about $1.6 billion), reports the Times Online. The company was known to be in deal talks, and there had been speculation that eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) and Alibaba.com were both interested in acquiring the Eastern Europe-focused site. The offer, which would pay around £17 for each Tradus share, is well below the £2 billion that the company once traded for at its peak. An official announcement is expected to come early this week.

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In September, Tradus took a 30 percent stake in Russian auction site Molotuk.ru. The remaining 70 percent is owned by Mail.ru, which itself is partially owned by Naspers. And in October, Naspers said it would buy Polish IM service Gadu Gadu, a deal that closed last week. Poland accounts for three quarters of Tradus’ revenue, so this latest deal would help Naspers expand its footprint in the region.

In June, major institutional owners of Tradus, Florissant and the Izaki Group, announced they would be selling off some of their holdings in the site, though they still planned to hold a third of its shares following the sale.