posted on February 2, 2003 01:05:05 PM new
Meg has found a new way to make more money for eBay.
eBay Inc. EBAY.O said Friday it would buy some assets of Texas-based CARad.com in a move to make it easier for automobile dealers to sell more cars via its popular Internet auction site.
eBay also said it struck a deal to be the exclusive auction-style partner on Kelley Blue Book's Web site, which publishes such things as car reviews and pricing guides for new and used automobiles.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Shares of eBay closed up 96 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $75.16 on the Nasdaq market.
eBay, which ended its marketing alliance with AutoTrader.com in December, said its purchase of privately held CARad.com's technology for managing dealers' online auctions would fuel growth in its eBay Motors business.
eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove told Reuters that CARad.com will be rebranded as an eBay company upon the completion of the acquisition, which is scheduled for this quarter.
The CARad.com acquisition will not affect EBay's first-quarter or 2003 forecasts, it said.
eBay recently posted a fourth-quarter profit that tripled from the year earlier. The company also issued higher 2003 guidance that called for earnings of up to $1.12 a share on revenues of as much as $1.9 billion.
"I think it will be an incremental step," U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy said of the company's plan to consolidate its eBay Motors' traffic via Kelley's Blue Book's No. 1 auto-information Web site and to give more dealers a way to list their used cars.
While eBay boasts the largest volume of used car sales on the Web, the impact on revenues is only around $10 million to $12 million each quarter, Rashtchy said.
"eBay's take on each car sold is still quite small, about $40," he said.
"The key is to convince people that it's O.K. to buy a car online, sight unseen," Rashtchy said.
posted on February 2, 2003 01:30:11 PM neweBay Inc. EBAY.O said Friday it would buy some assets of Texas-based CARad.com in a move to make it easier for automobile dealers to sell more cars via its popular Internet auction site.
Sounds like they are going to spend some of the cash they made on the Sotheby's, Kruse Auction House, and ReturnBuy deals.
Oops. I forgot. They didn't make any money on those deals.
EDITED TO ADD: I just looked at carad.com, and it is nothing more than AuctionWatch, only exclusively for eBay Motors. What is the point?!?!?!?!
