posted on September 8, 2001 02:35:18 PM
eBay filed with the SEC this week to potentially raise $1 billion by issueing new shares. They haven't done so yet but could at any time. Goldman Sachs is speculating that there may be another acquisition in eBay's future. The last big one was Half.com which added a Fixed Price marketplace to eBay's arsenal and gave Meg visions of $5 billion in revenues by 2005. What new market could they be going after? A billion wouldn't be enough to swipe a Yahoo or Amazon.
[b]"All this is is an option to be able to quickly react to an opportunity if it presents itself," said Goldman, Sachs & Company Analyst Anthony Noto on Friday.
"Just because they filed it, doesn't mean that they have to dip into it."[/b]
...
[b]Some investors were worried that the filing could signal eBay's intent to buy another company or make a sudden strategic move, Patel said.
But eBay was unlikely to take any risky action ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season and the traditionally busy first quarter, Patel said.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Michael Legg said, "They may have some large acquisitions in mind that could add to complexity of the story," Legg said. "Their business is very strong right now, and if they were to add a very large-scale acquisition it could take away the focus."
But EBay President and Chief Executive Meg Whitman on Friday said the company had no imminent plans along those lines.
"We have no acquisitions in our sights. We see no big dilutive acquisitions on the horizon," Whitman said in remarks at the Salomon Smith Barney Technology 2001 conference in New York.
The registration would give the company the flexibility to pursue an acquisition or raise cash quickly, she said.[/b]
Like Meg's gonna tell ya beforehand if she's gonna make a play for BargainandHaggle or some other successful up-and-coming outfit in a niche they don't already dominate. I've always wondered if BargainandHaggle was setting themselves up to be bought by eBay. They have to be on eBay's radar the way they're steadily climbing the Media Matrix site popularity polls. eBay took out Half.com while they were still small enough to handle. They might do the same to BargainandHaggle.
eBay already dominates the auction and Fixed Price marketplace. The only one they don't control is BargainandHaggle's negotiable marketplace which is a heckuva lot more fun and interactive than a Fixed Price market.
How much did eBay pay for Half.com? Wonder what a BargainandHaggle would fetch?
posted on September 8, 2001 09:51:22 PM
eBay has shown quite adequately and painfully that it can't succesfully design a storefront/mall concept. It's my theory that eBay will purchase Yahoo Stores or some similar well known online mall.
posted on September 9, 2001 04:12:56 AM
it would take many man years to develop ebay stores like yahoo stores.
if they buy yahoo,they are also getting the content and subscribers ,yahoo stock is trading at 10 dollars.
yahoo/ebay will be on par with aol/time warner.
which leaves amazon dangling on its own?
it could be amzn and yahoo too,since yahoo does not sell books but yahoo subscribers look for content and amzn could provide that/
amzn needs to do something about its stores,40,000 items for 39.99 and nothing sells!!
I've always wondered if BargainandHaggle was setting themselves up to be bought by eBay. They have to be on eBay's radar the way they're steadily climbing the Media Matrix site popularity polls. eBay took out Half.com while they were still small enough to handle. They might do the same to BargainandHaggle.