37signals-designed Shopping.com sells to eBay for $650,000,000 in cash 06 Jun 2005

26 comments Latest by ERE

We’d like to think our redesign of Shopping.com had something to do with it, but we suspect there’s a wee-bit more to this deal than the UI: eBay buys Shopping.com for $650,000,000. Another smart non-inventory buy for eBay. Now they’ve got eBay, Paypal, a piece of Craigslist, Half.com, and Shopping.com — all non-inventory e-commerce middleman sites. They get the internet.

26 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Fin 06 Jun 05

For a moment there, I thought you were the recipients of the $640k.

And low, I did say to myself, “blimey”.

Jamie 06 Jun 05

Fin: lucky you didn’t realise it was $650m and not $640k, otherwise you might have done yourself some harm. :)

Brian 06 Jun 05

Holy balls that’s a lot of money.

It’s tough for me to fathom Shopping.com actually being worth that much, at least they’ve turned a profit the last couple of years. I know net profit isn’t the only factor in a company’s value, but they made $12 million last year so it’ll take 54 years for it to even out. We definitely appear to be in the midst of another Internet boom, sure hope the bust isn’t as bad as last time.

Chris from Scottsdale 06 Jun 05

Please tell me you got paid in stock.

dmr 06 Jun 05

Don’t you think ebay could recreate shopping.com for cheaper? I mean sure it’s got a following, but nothing compared to paypal and ebay right? I’m thinking this was not such a great way to spend $650M.

tino 06 Jun 05

Hmmm. I actually didn’t know you guys redesigned shopping.com. Not sure if I wanted to know that .. LOL

wayne 06 Jun 05

It will be interesting to see how they integrate it. They spend at least a million a year advertising and SEO on shopping.com. So, buy it and save that money while earning the revenue of the other advertisers.

The only downside looks to be the major retailers who include products via direct feed. They will not like being undercut on price by eBay store owners.

Chad 06 Jun 05

And how many employees does Shopping.com have?

kmilden 06 Jun 05

They really, really over paid. I know other sites that did more in revenue and were affiliate marketing based (middle man) and saw 5% of what Shopping.com got. Go figure.

Sam 07 Jun 05

Am I missing something? What does Shopping.com bring to the table that’s worth that many zeros?? Read the article and still don’t buy it.

Lee 07 Jun 05

Is it 1998 again? ;-)

Paul 07 Jun 05

think ebay is going to take over the world! :-P

Christian Romney 07 Jun 05

First and foremost, they bring a phenomenal URL.

Dan Boland 07 Jun 05

First and foremost, they bring a phenomenal URL.

They already have a very powerful brand/URL in eBay. Why would they spend $650 million (that could buy an NFL franchise) on a website that has a mascot named Shoppy?!

Elliott 07 Jun 05

I’m sensing there is a fair bit more to this deal than meets the eye.

I’m assuming their also getting epinions.com

I wouldnt be surprised if they do an interesting job of integrating all these services.

37 signals………get in there!

Ungert Milipitas 07 Jun 05

The $620 million price tag is 4.7 times Shopping.com’s estimated sales for 2005

4.7X sales is on the low side for a company like this.

monkeyinabox 07 Jun 05

Jason - better raise your web design fees. :)

wha? 07 Jun 05

37signals still designs?

kumar 08 Jun 05

38th signal worth $620 million !! the IT boom is back ??

Don Wilson 08 Jun 05

eBay has officially defined itself insane.

W Poulos 09 Jun 05

“Now they�ve got eBay, Paypal, a piece of Craigslist, Half.com, and Shopping.com � all non-inventory e-commerce middleman sites.”

Dont forget eBay’s recent purchase of Rent.com for ~$415 Million too — another middleman sort of business bringing renters together with property owners.

Zugdud 16 Jun 05

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