eBay releases details of complaint against Craigslist

The mystery over what prompted eBay to sue Craigslist last week appears to be solved.

Apparently eBay feels that its ownership stake in Craigslist was unfairly reduced following eBay's launch of rival online classifieds service Kijiji, which went live overseas in 2005 and in the U.S. in 2007, according to the 26-page lawsuit filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery and made available by eBay on Wednesday.

According to the heavily redacted, public copy of the complaint, which names Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist views Kijiji as a competitive activity that cancels some shareholder rights that eBay acquired in 2004 when it bought a stake in Craigslist.

In response to that, Craigslist reorganized its stock structure in January, reducing eBay's stake in the online classified site from 28.04 percent to 24.85 percent. The reduction mean that eBay loses the ability to elect a director.

However, eBay feels Craigslist overstepped its rights and has filed suit over the diluting of its stake.

"The original agreement between the two parties always envisioned that there could be competitive activity," eBay spokeswoman Kim Rubey told the Associated Press.

The lawsuit also discloses that Meg Whitman, who was CEO of eBay at the time, offered to buy the remainder of Craigslist in a letter to Craigslist in July 2007. Whitman's letter was in response to a letter Buckmaster sent that expressed "'negative' feelings toward eBay's launch of Kijiji," and that stated "we are no longer comfortable having eBay as a shareholder."

Whitman responded by saying that eBay had taken steps to "firewall off" its Kijiji operations from the corporate management of its equity stake in Craigslist, according to the suit.

She went on to say that eBay was "so happy" with its relationship with Craigslist that "we would welcome the opportunity to acquire the remainder of (the company) we do not already own whenever you and (Newmark) feel it would be appropriate," according to the lawsuit.

Craigslist plans to make a formal response to the complaint in the next few weeks, the company said on its blog.

"Sadly, 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," Craigslist's blog said.

[Heebee Jeebies]

That is what you get....

When you let a bloodsucker in the front door. Craigslist is unique and useful. eBay is a haven for scammers and rip-off artists. Two completely different businesses. Oh, and eBay/PayPal are greedy as all get out.

Sleep with flea's get bit. I hope Craigslist survives this.

Robert

[cybervigilante]

Screw Greedy Ebay

Didn't some greedy lawyer sue Craig's List before? How dare you create a totally excellent and free service for the public. All the scum of the earth come after you. Screw Ebay. It was a good idea at the start, but they've become really stinky lately.

[benjaminstraight]

benjamin straight writes: The actual complaint reads tough.

[memyselfneye]

Ebay is a bloated monopoly and should be illegal. That's all they need to do is control Craigslist, the last bastion of freedom in the online classified world. Ebay already bought out and destroyed it's virtually only competition, Yahoo auctions USA, then bought paypal and restricted any purchase of adult oriented merchandise with it, just to prove it's control over morality, like grandma Edra in Idaho cares if Billy Smith in Miami buys the Deep Throat 12 extended edition DVD to pass his lonely days. The Ebay gestapo kicks auctions with generic explanations as to why, and if you try to contact someone other than the sterile "Live chat" help, noone hears you. WHERE's the COMPETITION??? Are you telling me that a computer program manned by what, 3 or 4 people(???) is netting nearly 2 BILLION a year and NOT ONE computer geek out there has managed to write a program to compete with them?? Something is wrong with this picture! !! Even Bill Gates has Apple. C'mon fella's, there's gold in them thar hills! Grow some ^*&#@ and stand up to the giant, and maybe they'll realize that if we have a *real* choice, sellers won't put up with their restrictive, communistic crap anymore. (although I'm sure Ebay regularly buys out any potential competion, like yahoo) I've obviously had my share of bad experiences with Ebay.

[phuckUebayPhuckers]

Fa Q ebay! I LOVE Craigslist! Can't wait for an ebay competitor. They'll so be pissed when they can't buy them. Monopolizing phucs!