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Surprises

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Aug 13th 2004 10:12am





eBay Buys One Quarter Of Craigslist

from the and,-then-again... dept

We had just been mentioning the ridiculous notion that Craigslist might want to go public, and suddenly... they've sold one-quarter of the company to eBay. That was fairly unexpected, because from everything that had been said, they didn't need much in the form of additional working capital. The article discussing the deal points out that both companies are built up around loyal communities, but I'm not sure the two communities are all that similar (even when they overlap). In fact, it's not surprising that some folks on Craigslist seem unhappy with the deal (though others think it's wonderful). Craig, himself, has an interesting explanation of the deal, which suggests they didn't really need the working capital, but through a set of somewhat random events, the offer came about and made sense. Should be interesting to see what comes next.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  •  
    identicon
    Adam, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 10:42am

    Wow...

    Craig, himself, was on the radio yesterday morning and he said that there were no plans for an IPO, and that although they kept having VCs approach them, they aren't in need of funding or investment.

    I suppose it could just be a liquidity event.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    dorpus, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 10:57am

    Say this say that

    throw around a lot of fancy financial/technical jargon, and all it really means is that Craig is middle aged, wants to sit back and enjoy his SUV lifestyle in Marin county. Craigslist will become a low-quality annex of ebay, and other sites will rise to take the place of free communal bulletin boards.

     

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    •  
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 1:51pm

      Re: Say this say that

      hey wow!
      dorpus said something that made sense and is probably right.

       

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      •  
        identicon
        Anonymous Coward, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 4:30pm

        Re: Say this say that

        Unfortunately, Craig didn't profit off of this sell. Whoops.

         

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        •  
          identicon
          dorpus, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 6:37pm

          Re: Say this say that

          So he claims now. How would stuff like this not eventually profit Craig? It's his company. It's like the "CEO who makes $1 a year" argument -- ignore the millions and millions he makes on stock options.

           

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    •  
      identicon
      alternatives, Aug 14th, 2004 @ 7:37pm

      Re: Say this say that

      and all it really means is that Craig is middle aged, wants to sit back and enjoy his SUV lifestyle in Marin county.

      Or one could actually read about what is happening and realize exactly how astoundingly ignorant your comment is. Once again showing what a uninformed bafoon Dorpus is.

       

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  •  
    identicon
    deeje, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 11:36am

    no capital to CraigsList

    my read of Craig's explanation is that a private shareholder sold his shares to eBay. CraigsList, the corporation, received no capital...

     

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  •  
    identicon
    good move, Aug 13th, 2004 @ 12:00pm

    good move on their part

    Being associated with Ebay gives instant credibility. Having a big player own a 1/4 means you have protection from big players that may want your space. Kudos to Craig.

     

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  •  
    identicon
    Chris Maresca, Aug 14th, 2004 @ 1:41pm

    Talked to Craig last week...

    [oops, hit return and it posted blank...]
    I talked to Craig last week at a MySQL party @ LinuxWorld. I've known him for a few years and he told me he was meeting with lawyers to deal with some long-standing, unhandled business issues that we now rearing their ugly head.
    Apparently, this is what he was referring to. He was pretty upset about having to deal with this, but it seems to have been resolved for the best.
    Chris.

     

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