|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 02 June 2005 |
On line Auction and Community Trading leader EBay has
announced that it has now signed the deal to acquire
Shopping.com. The price is $21 per share making a
total of $620 million, all in cash.
The deal is
subject to acceptance by regulators and by
shopping.com's stock holders - EBay are expecting it
to be completed in the third quarter.
Shopping. com is a price comparison site operating in
the USA, France and the UK - it will give EBay traders
an extra outlet as well as access to a new base of
buyers but the main advantage for EBay itself will be
to get it into that comparison market.
The company's modus operandum involves it offering
price comparisons on a complete range of products.
Revenue is derived from retailers who pay to go on the
database and have their names placed in front of
enquirers when a product they're offering is queried.
Some 40 percent of the total income is from
advertising links generated by Google - revenue for
the first quarter of this financial year was up 38
percent on last time.
Within the package comes ePinions which is a site
providing product reviews. Bill Cobb, EBay North
America president, said that buyers have pointed out
that product reviews would help them to make better
buying decisions. He commented that both services,
price comparisons and product revues was complementary
to EBay's community driven activities. There are, at
the moment, something over a million product reviews
on file.
This move may help EBay regain the momentum of growth
it's lost recently. For the second quarter in
succession, increase was below 50 percent at 38
percent.
EBay, once specialised in handling the different and
eclectic, now tell that products placed on its pages
are leaning towards "in-season" with some success. It
has also announced that it will be launching a
dedicated site for Ireland later this year.
Reuben Dunn /France
|
