eBay staff moonlighting via Craigslist?

May 17, 2008

October 25th Cloudy Moonlight
Creative Commons License photo credit: audreyjm529

File this one under “unverified but irresistable…”

Yumio runs Product & Marketing at MyThings.com, and previously launched Yahoo Answers. She writes:

Every time I post on Craigslist for a part-time position for Web work (coding, design, etc.) I get a ton of replies from CURRENT eBay employees who all say they can work up to 20 hours a week on moonlighting freelance. One person we hired for a facebook application was absolutely horrendous - but I still am amazed at how he often came to our office in the middle of the work-day (long lunch???) to do milestone meetings.

Found via Shripriya, an ex-eBay employee, who writes:

When I worked at eBay , none of us had time to breathe. It was go-go-go all the time. … I wonder what’s changed over there. Once apathy sets in, reversing it is going to be really, really hard.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

Craigslist respond to eBay’s law suit

May 17, 2008

Craigslist has responded to eBay’s lawsuit (opens in .pdf) in which it was alleged they had adopted a ‘poison pill’. This prevents eBay from selling their shares to anyone not approved by the Craigslist board, and issued extra shares which diluted eBay’s share of the company to below 25%. The result is that they lost the right to appoint a representative to the Craigslist board.

Their response emphasizes that eBay had, and still has the same opportunity to enter into a right of first refusal (ROFR), meaning only Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Jim Buckmaster CEO of Craigslist could purchase their shares. This would result in eBay being granted additional shares restoring their original 28.4% stake in the company.

eBay assert that accepting the ROFR provides no benefit to them and have been free of the ROFR since June 2007, meaning they are free to sell their shares at will. Newmark and Buckmaster were still bound to each other with each only able to sell their shares to the other. Naturally this claim is denied in the response by Craigslist.

Craigslist admit many of the points that caused eBay to sue them, but in their defence claim that they were acting as directors in the best interests of the company and are protected by law for doing so.

What the complaint doesn’t answer is were the changes made to protect the company, or were they made for the sole benefit of the two majority shareholders?

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | Comments Off 

Craigslist’s turn to sue eBay

May 14, 2008

Following the lawsuit filed by eBay against Craigslist for diluting their 28.4% share of the company to below 25%, Craigslist have now sued eBay.

The lawsuit demands that eBay now return all of the outstanding shares to Craigslist as well as a call for punitive damages and profits from the online advertising revenue.

eBay are positioned in the lawsuit as unwelcome minority investors who have abused their position, not only to pressure Craigslist to acquiese to a full acquisition by eBay, but also as planting spies in the form of their nominated director on Craigslist board.

The lawsuit names Josh Silverman, who was responsible for launching Craigslist competitor Kijiji, and his replacement eBay nominee Thomas Jeon, apparently responsible for Kijiji world wide competition policy. Craigslist contend the eBay used its position to gather competitive and proprietary information to divert traffic from Craigslist to eBay companies. This is inspite of the fact that in eBay’s lawsuit they complain that a replacement to the board for Silverman was never accepted.

Craigslist also complain that eBay used adverts on Google using the Craigslist name to direct traffic to Kijiji and eBay.

The question has to be asked if Craigslist were so unhappy with eBay as a shareholder why they have waited so long to sue them. Issuing a complaint and alleging eBay spied on Craigslist in an anticomptitive manner is something that should have occured back in the summer of 2007 if it was a concern.

Having taken steps which appear to have diluted eBays stake in the company and been sued, to then sue eBay alleging they’ve abused their shareholding smacks of tit for tat.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | Comments Off 

eBay reveal details of Craigslist suit

May 1, 2008

eBay have revealed some more details of their lawsuit against Craigslist. The full complaint is now available online, but the gist of the matter goes like this:

In 2004, one of Craigslist’s shareholders sold his 25.1% share to eBay. As part of that contract, it was agreed that if eBay ever set up a competitor to Craigslist, it would lose the “right of first refusal” to buy further Craigslist shares.

In 2005, eBay set up kijiji.com, a classified ads business, and in 2007, kijiji became available in the US. Craigslist duly notified eBay that this was competitive activity. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster told Meg Whitman that they were no longer happy with eBay as a shareholder, and suggested that a new home be found for the shares which eBay held. Meg responded that eBay was happy with its investment, and would in fact like to buy the rest of the company whenever Newmark and Buckmaster felt that would be appropriate.

According to the complaint, Newmark and Buckmaster responded to this by holding “a series of clandestine meetings” to try to keep eBay’s representative off their board, and altered their corporate governance to protect them from an “unwelcome takeover”, adopting a ‘poison pill’ which prevents eBay from selling their shares to anyone not approved by the Craigslist board, and issuing extra shares which diluted eBay’s share of the company to below 25%, meaning that they lost the right to appoint a representative to the Craigslist board.

Craigslist’s blog says “we have an uncomfortably conflicted shareholder in our midst, one that is obsessed with dominating online classifieds for the purpose of maximizing its own profits”. Their response will be filed in the next few weeks.

The New York Times has a slightly longer summary of the complaint if you want more details.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured, News | 2 Comments 

Gumtree winning the classified ads wars

February 19, 2008

This post was written in February 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

News is out this week that eBay classified ads sites are trouncing the competition. In the US Kijiji has overtaken both Yahoo! Classifieds and Windows Live Expo, and are so far ahead of Google Base and Google Classifieds that they don’t even register on the radar. Craigslist (which eBay owns a stake in) stands out at as the market leader in the US, but Kijiji is now 6th most popular.

gumtreeBack here in the UK however it’s Gumtree that’s making ground. Gumtree is now the undisputed market leader in the online classified ads business with eight million visitors in January alone. Gumtree is the number one classified site in the UK ahead of both Autotrader and Rightmove (source - Nielsen). Last week Gumtree saw their 20,000,000th listing placed on the site.

What is it about classified ads that’s making these sites so popular? A mix of time, ease of use and convenience appears to be the key. Why wait until next Thursday for the local free ads newspaper to drop through your door when you can be online hunting for the item you need immediately? Whether it be a new job, a house an item you need to buy, or simply a quick way to list that item you need to dispose of, online is instant. More importantly Gumtree is free to use in all categories bar recruitment and property (and in property you only pay if you’re a professional landlord or estate agent). The only other time you’ll pay is if you want to feature your ad to get more exposure on the site.

eBay’s classified ads sites will certainly become more important to the group in the future and over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at Gumtree and what it has to offer. In the meantime if you’re looking for business premises, staff for your eBay business, or simply have an item to dispose of or to procure then take a look at your local Gumtree site and let us know how you get on.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 6 Comments