After Techcrunch reported StumbleUpon was in play, fielding offers from many different suitors, and GigaOM reported that eBay was the one getting the deal done, Wall Street Journal is finally reporting that talks are at an advanced stage between eBay and StumbleUpon. The report doesn’t add any specifics to the nearly three-week-old story, though one can understand, Rupert Murdoch’s bid might have them a little distracted.
If EBAY does make its move, it could not be more soon enough.
How many of us think of EBAY and think “OLD SCHOOL”…….I know I do and so do many of my readers on Allthings.TV.
StumbleUpon and their offshoot STUMBLEVIDEO is part of a new breed of WEB 2.0 sites that could well have the title WEB 3.0 attached to their names…….
$75 million is not too much for Ebay to tell their competition that they have decided to wake up, smell the coffee and get with it.
What I dont understand is why ebay is getting into these businesses? I thought their major focus was on online marketplace area.
Why eBay?
Stumbleupon is addictive with a lucurative search-like monetization potential. Their only problem is mass distribution, thats where Skype’s 500 million install base is going to help…I think Om clearly nailed this in a previous post.
IMHO, anyone with a huge desktop distribution channel is a potential Stumbleupon acquirer. Adobe (Flash) is the first one which comes to my mind.
I don’t get it. Stubleupon and eBay? Just another business unit and brand, not really a online market tool. But then there is also Skype, which doesn’t really jive with thier core product like say PayPal does. I guess we need to stop thinking of eBay as eBay.
I don’t understand why don’t they solve their issue once and for all. E bay is a good online marketplace, the thing I don’t understand is why are they entering into other people’s business.
Regards
Stumbleupon is so much larger then Ebay nowadays anyway. I don’t see why people are still complaining years after this post was even made (lol) to be honest.
I bet you eBay wish they did this now LOL. One thing with all of these Web 2.0 companies is that monetizing them hasn’t been a foregone conclusion. Even Digg still loses quite a bit of money (youtube even I think). Still Stumble has definitely seen a spike in popularity, while eBay has probably seen a drop (I could be wrong)