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Post Info TOPIC: eBay Acquires Social Search Engine StumbleUpon
budnonymous


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eBay Acquires Social Search Engine StumbleUpon
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eBay Acquires Social Search Engine StumbleUpon

By Steve Bryant
May 31, 2007 eBay announced May 31 that it has completed its purchase of social search Engine StumbleUpon for a total price of $75 million.

StumbleUpon, an early stage company that boasts about 2.3 million users, is a social recommendation search engine that offers new content based upon users' preferences and how they've rated pages they've previously seen through the engine.

 


Read more here about additional convictions in an eBay fraud case.

"StumbleUpon is a great fit within our goal of pioneering new communities based on commerce and sustained by trust," said Michael Buhr, senior director, eBay, in a company statement. "StumbleUpon's downloadable toolbar provides an engaging and unique experience to its users, but it is the similarities in our approaches to the concept of community that make it such a compelling addition to eBay."

eBay is likely to integrate StumbleUpon's recommendation service into its auctions and sales as a way to surface less-trafficked items that may be of interest to shoppers with esoteric tastes.


Buhr will serve as general manager of StumbleUpon effective immediately, according to eBay. StumbleUpon's current founders and management team will remain in their respective positions. eBay said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance issued with its first quarter earnings release this past April.  Check out eWEEK.com's Retail Center for the latest news, views and analysis on technology's impact on retail.

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budnonymous


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Checkout this article...


eBay buys StumbleUpon for no discernible reason


I love acquisitions where the acquirer spends millions of dollars of shareholders' money but won't deign to explain why. eBay seems to be on the buy side of many of those deals and the online auctioneer announced another one today with its $75 million cash purchase of StumbleUpon.

The well-informed reporter that actually broke news of the official announcement earlier today doesn't even understand eBay's motivation. Om Malik wrote, "The rationale behind the deal will emerge in time." Maybe. Maybe not. I'm still waiting for an explanation of eBay's $2.6 billion Skype acquisition. Most theories about its latest deal center on the company leveraging StumbleUpon's toolbar and growing user base to enter the search market.

But why should eBay make it a guessing game? The transaction is public. The price is public. eBay and StumbleUpon are both consumer facing businesses that are well understood by the public. Despite all of that transparency, eBay has decided to turn its dealmaking strategy into a guessing game. It's hard to laud these sorts of transactions.




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