Thursday, August 19, 2004

eBay Buys Craigslist Stake

Leslie Walker reports:

"Part of the site's appeal is that it still feels like the early days of the Web, with a text-only design and simple publishing tools that predate the flashy graphics, big ads and other commercial flourishes prevalent on leading Internet sites today.

"But users fear that could change after last week's announcement that eBay, one of the giants of Internet commerce, has bought a 25 percent stake in the tiny company for an undisclosed sum. Users have been grousing in Craigslist's open forums that eBay may push to inject advertising and make other changes that would spoil the site's relaxed, back-porch atmosphere.

"Newmark insists that such worries are unfounded. "If anything, all this questioning is just reinforcing our sense of our current mission," he said this week.