chevyt454
05-14-2008, 07:15 AM
Craigslist seems bent on a bloody fight for its independence.
The battle surfaced in recent weeks with a lawsuit from eBay the e-commerce giant which bought a 28% stake in Craigslist in 2004. EBay accuses Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, who control the company, of trying to dilute its stake to reduce its potential influence over the company's board.
The Craigslist duo never seemed enthusiastic about having eBay as a shareholder (eBay acquired the stake from a former employee), but distrust has turned to outright hostility since last summer, when eBay launched a rival classified advertising site in the United States.
Among the suggestions that eBay has made to Craigslist's controlling shareholders, according to court papers released this month, was to buy the company outright.
Craigslist's anti-big-business style has turned it into the largest classified site on the Internet, with 30 million classified listings a month. It is an institution in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where its success has been blamed (or credited, depending on where your sympathies lie) with devastating the local newspaper industry.
Buckmaster claims that, measured by per capita listings, Craigslist is now deeply rooted in Austin and Portland, Ore., as well as large areas of New York City. With Web sites covering nearly 50 cities, more than half of them now outside the United States, the company's traffic is growing at roughly 100% a year, he says.
Craigslist consciously trades off its anti-establishment image (most listings posted on its sites are free, and it makes money from charging professional recruiters for jobs advertisements in 10 cities, along with brokers handling apartment rentals in New York City).
Buckmaster's official profile blithely boasts that he has been called "a communist and a socialist anarchist." What he exhibits, however, is more a pragmatic brand of low-key capitalism. The Craigslist chief executive confesses to living a comfortable life on his earnings and does not rule out a sale of the company in the long term.
Craigslist has filed a countersuit on May 13th against business rival eBay Inc, alleging eBay used its minority stake in Craigslist to steal its corporate trade secrets.
The battle surfaced in recent weeks with a lawsuit from eBay the e-commerce giant which bought a 28% stake in Craigslist in 2004. EBay accuses Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark, who control the company, of trying to dilute its stake to reduce its potential influence over the company's board.
The Craigslist duo never seemed enthusiastic about having eBay as a shareholder (eBay acquired the stake from a former employee), but distrust has turned to outright hostility since last summer, when eBay launched a rival classified advertising site in the United States.
Among the suggestions that eBay has made to Craigslist's controlling shareholders, according to court papers released this month, was to buy the company outright.
Craigslist's anti-big-business style has turned it into the largest classified site on the Internet, with 30 million classified listings a month. It is an institution in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where its success has been blamed (or credited, depending on where your sympathies lie) with devastating the local newspaper industry.
Buckmaster claims that, measured by per capita listings, Craigslist is now deeply rooted in Austin and Portland, Ore., as well as large areas of New York City. With Web sites covering nearly 50 cities, more than half of them now outside the United States, the company's traffic is growing at roughly 100% a year, he says.
Craigslist consciously trades off its anti-establishment image (most listings posted on its sites are free, and it makes money from charging professional recruiters for jobs advertisements in 10 cities, along with brokers handling apartment rentals in New York City).
Buckmaster's official profile blithely boasts that he has been called "a communist and a socialist anarchist." What he exhibits, however, is more a pragmatic brand of low-key capitalism. The Craigslist chief executive confesses to living a comfortable life on his earnings and does not rule out a sale of the company in the long term.
Craigslist has filed a countersuit on May 13th against business rival eBay Inc, alleging eBay used its minority stake in Craigslist to steal its corporate trade secrets.