It's being called an April Fool's joke gone wild, but four days after the fake press release hit the web it's still picking up steam and is showing no signs of slowing down. Apparently first released on Pheebay.com, the faux news release claims that Jack Ma of Alibaba renown would be making an overture for ownership of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), the stated goal being a gut thrust drive at upsetting online auction leader eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) for good. The fake notice also pulls Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) into the fray but alas, to no avail.
What makes this situation at least mildly remarkable is the response that it has received. It seems that as people realize that it's only a joke, the uniform response is one of disappointment and dismay in finding out that it is just not true. The fake notice was well received on the Powersellersunite boards where you can easily see that had it not been a joke it had the potential of becoming an over the top success. This serves as another quick and passing reminder that there are a great number of disenfranchised former eBay sellers who still have an axe to grind.
I read the full release on AssociatedContent about this light hearted fantasy, and I think about all the options available on the internet. I am reminded that strange things do happen in this internet world and that yesterday's joke is sometimes today's block buster hit. Don't turn your back on the true possibility that the eBay slayer is standing in the shadows ready to strike. As David Lee Roth sang in Fair Warning, "What you think is nothing, might be something after all."
