Sunday, June 05, 2005

Why did eBay but Shopping.com

One Wednesday Jun 1, we all heard that eBay decided to acquire shopping. com for $620million.
Why did eBay decide to buy shopping.com a price comparison engine?

My thoughts were that eBay is probably looking to integrate the price comparison engine into their database. When a person would search for a product it would at the same time searh the entire eBay database of auctions and since most auctions while they are taking place have rather low prices, eBay auctions will likely be the top of the list on the price comparison.

My father thought that eBay would integrate the shopping.com engine for exactly the opposite reason; to inform eBay users what the market price and availablity of a product they are bidding on at eBay is.
What do you think?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SHOP,EBAY&d=s