EBay Buys German Online Auctioneer.Web auction house eBay (eBay, Inc., San Jose, CA, www.ebay.com) The major auction service on the Web. eBay popularized the concept of buying and selling online, and both individuals and commercial enterprises list items for sale. Inc has bought a three-month-old copycat German firm, alando.de, for an undisclosed sum, marking the US online auction pioneer's first acquisition in Europe Europe (y  r`əp), 6th largest continent, c.4,000,000 sq mi (10,360,000 sq km) including adjacent islands (1992 est. pop. 512,000,000). . The firm already
has a UK site up and running. Despite the fact that alando only
launched in March, it already has 50,000 registered users to add to
eBay's 3.8 million, but it will have its brand name absorbed into
eBay shortly. eBay will find itself competing in Germany Germany (jûr`mənē), Ger. Deutschland, officially Federal Republic of Germany, republic (2005 est. pop. 82,431,000), 137,699 sq mi (356,733 sq km). against UK
firm Quixell Ltd, which operates as QXL QXL Quixell (European online auction website)QXL Quark Express Element Library .com and already has French and German language sites. eBay expects to take a one-time charge in connection with the acquisition and says the transaction will be dilutive for the remainder of the year. Further ventures into Europe are expected this year. |
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