posted on September 10, 2001 08:39:00 PM
IBM and online auction leader eBay are strenghtening their already close relationship.
IBM, which is selling computers on eBay in a pilot project that began earlier this year and already has an established presence within eBay Stores, will expand what it sells on the site, both at auction, and at fixed prices. Along with computers and servers, IBM will offer software.
eBay will run auctions on IBM's web site and use IBM's WebSphere application server as the platform for V3, which is upgraded technology eBay designed to more quickly add features, programs and businesses to it's site.
V3 is set to begin later this year.
Also, there will be a direct link to eBay from www.ibm.com, and the companies will explore joint online and offline marketing projects.
posted on September 10, 2001 09:22:48 PM
Pocono: I read about this last week. There are a few other good interviews. One interview stated that eBay has a target date of 2004 to migrate to an IBM platform. (Along with the disclaimer that the new relationship with IBM won't affect eBay's agreement with Microsoft).
This also has something to do with eBay selling 1 Billion in stock. If you want the articles lemme know. But it will have to be in the morning. It is after midnight and my brain is too fried to find them now.
Eastwest: I think the article reads that the link will be from IBM to eBay. Not from eBay to IBM. However, I am sure eBay will manage to put the links to IBM somehwere other than the IBM auctions.
IBM plans to expand sales over eBay, and the online retailer will run auctions on IBM's Web site, under a deal the two companies announced Thursday.
In addition, eBay, which auctions everything from concert tickets to car parts, said it selected IBM's application platform to upgrade the technology that runs its business.
The two companies said IBM will extend its activity on eBay, following the success of an eight-month pilot project in which a limited amount of computers and servers were sold.
Under the expanded program, eBay will auction and offer fixed-price sales for IBM servers, computers and software such as electronic learning programs, IBM said.
"Seventy percent of buyers on eBay are new buyers to IBM, which is important to us," said Lou D'Ambrosio, vice president of marketing and sales at IBM Software Group. He added that eBay will become a new channel to sell goods to consumers and small and medium-sized businesses.
eBay also will provide auction services on IBM's Web site.
The two companies will market their combined services and products together online and in full-page advertisements in national newspapers beginning Friday.
With 34 million subscribers, eBay's site offers, at any given time, more than 6 million products and services for sale representing transaction activity of $256 a second.
San Jose, Calif.-based eBay also said it would use IBM's WebSphere application server as its platform for its V3 technology upgrade.
The V3 is designed to allow eBay to get even bigger. eBay will debut the project in the fourth quarter and complete it in about 16 months.
It will provide greater flexibility and allow
eBay to easily add new features and businesses and improve dependability, eBay said.
Application servers provide a base on which developers build new programs. They also connect back-end functions, such as transaction processing, to the front end that the person sees.
The WebSphere deal marks a major win for IBM, which beat out competitors such as BEA Systems, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, IBM said.
"The technology decision was wholly independent, a completely separate process from any marketing (agreement)," said Chuck Geiger, eBay's vice president of technology strategy.
eBay will use WebSphere as a so-called middleware program between its back-end databases and front-end Web servers, Geiger said. eBay's selection of WebSphere came after a nearly four-month process of testing WebSphere and its competitors for response time and capacity, he said.
"We feel comfortable that with the right deployment architecture, this can handle our load today into 2005," Geiger said.
Beginning later this year, eBay will replace its proprietary middleware code with WebSphere, Geiger said. But Geiger said the project does not mean eBay is moving away from being a technology company. Instead, the company is redeploying its engineers to handle other tasks and develop new features for eBay's sites.
"We're purchasing software that we didn't feel was a core competency for us," Geiger said.
"The basic framework of an application server was something we didn't need to specialize in ourselves."
eBay has not made a decision on which platform it will run WebSphere, but plans to choose between Sun's Solaris and Intel-based systems, Geiger said. The company has tested running the middleware program on Sun servers, which house eBay's database, and on Compaq NT servers, which run eBay's Web front end, he said.
eBay's selection of WebSphere will not affect the company's relationship with microsoft or its planned embrace of the software giant's .Net initiative, Geiger said.
Although both companies declined to give financial information about the WebSphere deal, a person familiar with the agreement said it was a "multimillion-dollar win for IBM."
"The reason why it's so important is that eBay represents the success of companies born on the Web," D'Ambrosio said.
posted on September 11, 2001 12:15:31 AM
This bodes ill for us all. More than ever it looks like eBay is trying to turn the whole gamut into Half.com .
Why else all this new 'technology' - which in reality reads more corporate control and less freedom for vendors.
