April 24, 2008
Craigslist "Smells" an eBay Takeover
This week we mentioned that eBay filed lawsuit against Craigslist because CL founders Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster had "unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in the company." What happened was that CL reduced eBay's economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent. Why? To stave off a potential takeover. At least according to CL blog:
We are surprised and disappointed by Ebay’s unfounded allegations, which came to us out of the blue, without any attempt to engage in a dialogue with us.Coming from a shareholder that views craigslist as a prime competitor, filing suit without so much as mentioning these assertions beforehand seems unethical, and hints at ulterior motives.
(Wow, eBay really is kinda sneaky at times.)
But according to an ABC 7 report, eBay bought a minority interest in the company in order to learn more about the classifieds business, "a portion of its own site that's been growing rapidly in recent years." (See, they just yearn for knowledge is all!) But with eBay ranking in at #17, with Cragislist at 45th (at least according to Alexa), it looks like Newmark and Buckmaster were just trying to protect their baby.
An aside: for your reading pleasure, the best Craigslist ad of all time. You've been warned.
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Re: the best craigslist ad of all time:
ew.
After seeing that ' Personal Ad' on Craigslist I am so glad I just look at the ' Free, games and toys, electronics, computers and bike sections of Craigslist on occasion.
...and people think I'm ' crazy '
Reading from the craigslist blog:
"Addendum in response to commenter question - To be perfectly clear, Ebay’s stake in craigslist has not been unfairly diluted as they have claimed."
The issue is whether this dilution is "fair" or not. Tough call.
Good lord, Brock. I don't think anyone needs to see that craigslist ad. But just for fun, I passed it on to all my friends, and they all hate me now.
Good lord, Brock. I don't think anyone needs to see that craigslist ad. But just for fun, I passed it on to all my friends, and they all hate me now.
I am highly amused because the banner ad at the top of this post is for ebay's CL competitor, Kijiji.
Ugh. First the nachos, then the cesspool.
What is this, the new SFist diet plan?
EBay is shitting their pants right now. They paid $100MM for StubHub and craigslist is listing the same exact tickets for free. Of course they are going to go after craigslist. Free vs. Pay? Free always wins so you've got to crush free and put it out of business.
If EBay takes over craigslist, they will decimate it.
Congrats, Brock... I think this is the first time I've ever had trouble eating and reading/seeing pics, but maybe that's just cause I don't have a gallbladder anymore.
"...cause I don't have a gallbladder anymore."
wait, what?
Cholecystectomy.
Pretty simple surgery, actually.
Craig doesn't have a gallbladder anymore either.
no scat or piss?? i always mix that with my jock itch fungus and soapscum play. what a prude.
your are better off linking to the actual raffic graph