craigsbay?

August 13, 2004 2:56 PM

craigsbay?
according to the founder of craigslist.com, ebay has acquired a 25% stake in the site.
there is a lot of concern that ebay will influence the way craigslist works, despite craig's assurances that it won't, but will ebay allow things like the 'casual encounters' section of the personals to continue?
or is this just the next logical step for craigslist, and is a 25% stake not enough for ebay to do any real damage?
(the way ebay acquired the stake seems a little weird to me too, even though it's all perfectly legal.)
posted by dolface (16 comments total)

no crap.
posted by Down10 at 3:41 PM on August 13, 2004

You forgot to link to the post where Craig explains how it came to be, and what it might mean.
posted by mathowie at 3:43 PM on August 13, 2004

my bad, the "the founder" link goes to cnewmark.com, where the blog entry is at the top of the page.
posted by dolface at 3:51 PM on August 13, 2004

Doesn't it still hold that whoever has majority holdings in the corporation gets to decide how it's run?
posted by gramcracker at 4:02 PM on August 13, 2004

I'm looking forward to cool Super Bowl commercials for CraigsList!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 4:02 PM on August 13, 2004

flash forward - Craigslist 2006 ....

- page 108 of 590 -

BE$T DEAL *** Novelty Pens *** L@@K L@@K L@@K you can't loose - no reserve. (new york)
-----
BE$T DEAL *** Novelty Pens *** L@@K L@@K L@@K you can't loose - no reserve. (san francisco)
-----
BE$T DEAL *** Novelty Pens *** L@@K L@@K L@@K you can't loose - no reserve. (seattle)
-----
Secrets of craigslist marketing - TOTALLY Banned SECRETS - HOW TO BE A CRAIGSLIST SELLAR LOW PRICE
-----
BE$T DEAL *** Novelty Pens *** L@@K L@@K L@@K you can't loose - no reserve. (wash, DC)
-----
BE$T DEAL *** Novelty Pens *** L@@K L@@K L@@K you can't loose - no reserve. (indianapolis)
posted by milovoo at 4:05 PM on August 13, 2004

yeah, it would be cool to see superbowl ads that are nothing more than sheets of college-rulled notebook paper with adtext scrawled in sharpie across them. Maybe some funkey-cool music too.

Craigslist is My Anti-Bling.
posted by Kwantsar at 4:06 PM on August 13, 2004

gramcracker , as far as i know it does.
what i'm wondering is, does craigslist now have a legal obligation not to expose ebay to lawsuits or something?
and if so, can ebay force craigslist to institute a registration policy -- for example -- for the site, or certain sections of it?
posted by dolface at 4:07 PM on August 13, 2004

yeah, it would be cool to see superbowl ads that are nothing more than sheets of college-rulled notebook paper with adtext scrawled in sharpie across them. Maybe some funkey-cool music too.

Some travel agency already does that exact ad, the tagline is "cheap fares, cheap commercials"
posted by milovoo at 4:22 PM on August 13, 2004

does craigslist now have a legal obligation not to expose ebay to lawsuits or something?

Not really. eBay owns a minority stake in craigslist, and it reads to me like this is simply an investment-- just like Berkshire Hathaway owning a minority stake in Coca-Cola.
posted by trharlan at 4:46 PM on August 13, 2004

Yes, I'm sure EBAY wanted to acquire a chunk of it so they could make no changes whatsoever.

Makes sense.

(trharlan: 25% is an awfully large "minority stake", and often something of that magnitude grants a Board of Directors chair or even Chair)
posted by Ynoxas at 5:05 PM on August 13, 2004

This is a Friday the 13th fool's joke, right?
posted by Peter H at 5:33 PM on August 13, 2004

Nothing stays the same forever. If Craigslist becomes eBay's cheap back alley whore then people will find another place to go. It'll be a bummer but such is the nature of existence, change is inevitable.
posted by fenriq at 9:01 PM on August 13, 2004

minority ownership
Less than 50% ownership of a corporation's voting stock, or not enough ownership to control company operations. From a purely accounting point of view, a parent company which owns less than 100% but more than 50% of a subsidiary presents the value of the remaining ownership (the minority ownership) on the balance sheet in a separate account. In such cases, minority interest is shown as either a liability or an equity item on the consolidated balance sheet, and the income (or loss) owed to the minority owners is subtracted from (or added to) the parent's income to arrive at a net income number (consolidated).

In English: Craigslist balance sheets will now list eBay under liabilities, and eBay will be owed 25% of profits (if any). If Craigslist cannot stay profitable, that liability will accrue as debt (which is quite common in these types of situations). If Craigslist wishes to seek financing and has a large debt load owed to eBay, they may not be able to get it. This makes Craigslist dependent to a certain extent on eBay for capital and in this sense eBay will have an important say in Craigslist operations, even though they would "lose" a board vote.

In practice, it probably means that Craigslist will have access to eBay's capital for expansion. Those are some deep pockets. Looking at the options out there, slow expansion as an independent would be the ideal for the Craigslist karma, but at some point their success would be (theoretically) easily copied by somebody like Tribune.com with lots of access to eyeballs and lots of cash to burn and a corporate necessity to retain the classified-ads business. Thus, a partner would have been required in any case. eBay may well be one of the best partners they could have.
posted by dhartung at 11:27 PM on August 13, 2004

I'm just waiting for this to happen to the blue...

Meta-bay
or
Ebayfilter
or
eMetabilter

Scaaaaary.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:48 AM on August 14, 2004

"'The bottom-line message? We haven't changed. We're not gonna.'
[...]
Asked whether he felt hijacked, Newmark said, 'That's water under the bridge.'"
posted by digaman at 10:56 AM on August 14, 2004