EBay Inc. Sells Equity Interest in Craigslist
ebayinc.com
ebayinc.com
Blog post on Craigslist's blog quoting Shakespeare.
EDIT: see http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/10/as-vertical-marketplaces-ri...
- Arguably, there was something of a fad aspect to eBay's initial rise. Yes, there were serious buyers and sellers but I also suspect it was something of a game for a lot of people who subsequently moved on to do other things.
- In general, my sense is that buying/selling used goods is overall something that makes less sense today. That's a very broad brush statement but I've seen this directly in some areas with some local sports stores, for example, getting out of selling used gear.
- The overall broadening on the Internet population tends to mean that anywhere scammers can scam, they will. This is harder to effectively protect against in the type of market eBay originally focused on (one-off sales of pre-owned goods that were often not standard items).
I love eBay as a buyer though, especially in Canada. There are still a ton of random things on there that really can't be found (at least not nearly as easily) anywhere else.
Unfortunately this only really works for items already listed on Amazon - otherwise you need to create new listings.
And I haven't bought anything through their traditional auction format in ages either. I don't really collect stuff and I'm not much inclined to do the auction thing when a few clicks at Amazon or Newegg will get me almost as good a deal (at minimum) for electronics for less hassle and risk.
Today CL's sales are estimated to be ~$335m and doubled year-over-year (2)
(1) http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/EBay-buys-25-stake-in...
(2) http://www.wsj.com/articles/ebay-sells-craigslist-stake-back...
Craigslist is an insanely valuable source for lead generation in recruiting, and car sales.
I run a recruiting company and craigslist is the best source of applicants by volume and return on investment (cost ($) per applicant).
Having observed them closely, they are not ignorant to this fact.
When specific cities or sections grow more popular they begin charging fees.
Their biggest boon has been a recent change to charge car dealerships 5$ per post. Car dealers pay because only months earlier they were paying for black hat solutions to post for 1-2$ per post.
Yeah... the most lucrative 20% of the volume...
This is why you see Apple buy dozens of companies quietly without disclosure all the time. Because most purchases would not really change whether the average person invests, if for no other reason than the sheer size of Apple.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040813165340/http://www.cnewmar...
EBay then launched a direct competitor, presumably using knowledge gained by being a major shareholder:
https://en.wikiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kijijiedia.org...
That also struck me as a shitty thing to do. Then eBay sued Craigslist and Craigslist sued eBay, causing further drama.
But now this is all over, and Craigslist can keep being Craigslist.
"""
Pierre Omidyar’s corporate spying scandal buried for good as eBay sells Craigslist stake
BY MARK AMES
ON JUNE 19, 2015
It didn’t get much attention, but eBay just quietly unloaded its 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist, putting to rest one of the most sordid episodes in Silicon Valley, in which eBay executives — including First Look Media publisher Pierre Omidyar and HP chief Meg Whitman — were directly implicated in corporate spying, stealing secrets, and exploiting Craigslist’s anti-capitalist idealism.
[...]
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To be fair, it's not like CL the company went out of their way to provide liquidity for that equity.
http://recode.net/2015/01/21/ebay-to-cut-2400-jobs-and-explo...
Not many people know about eE, but it was the third pillar of eBay (alongside Marketplaces and Payments). It gives the sort of national merchants you find in malls the tools to compete with companies like Amazon. When Donahoe agreed to spin off PayPal, he promoted the head of Marketplaces (Devin Wenig) to be the CEO Elect of eBay Inc. Devin promptly announced he wanted to divest Enterprise, essentially splitting the 3 silos of eBay Inc into three separate companies.