eBay, Craigslist Battle For Control In Court

eBay and Craigslist are going head-to-head in court in an effort to settle dueling lawsuits the two companies have filed against one another.

eBay is hoping that the court will find Craigslist guilty of changing its stock structure to dilute eBay's minority stake in the company, which Craigslist counters were part of an effort to shore up Craigslist's "anti-takeover defenses," notes Bloomberg, which has a full report on the lawsuit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, eBay alleges:
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster diluted eBay's stake in Craigslist through a "self-dealing" and secret scheme to issue more stock. EBay claims the dilution from a 28% stake to a 24% stake caused the company to lose its right to elect a Craigslist board member.

Meanwhile, Craigslist is counter-suing eBay on the grounds that the online auction site exploited its investment in Craigslist in 2004 to steal confidential information from the site, which it later used to create a competing service called "Kijiji" that was first launched overseas, then arrived in the US in 2007.

The Craigslist blog has posted information on the lawsuit, which includes a link to Craigslist's pre-trial brief.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is expected to take the stand, along with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster are scheduled to testify for Craigslist.

The two companies are to meet in court starting Monday, December 7, 2009. According to Craigslist, its suit against eBay is not likely to come before the court until late 2011.

Comments

[Artemis34]

11:02 PM on 12/07/2009

What I still cannot get over is that Meg Whitman didn't even vote until she was 48 and thinks she should be elected.

[wolfgangmo]

01:17 PM on 12/08/2009

Is it just me or does Whitman seem as clueless and vapid as Palin?

[SwingingFromCenter]

07:33 PM on 12/07/2009

1) Why is there a picture of Meg Whitman on this article? She's not even with Ebay anymore.

2) Craig knew the kind of mon.ster he was getting into bed with in Ebay when he took their money. He chose the money. I've got no sympathy for the guy.

[Ty Jones]

10:09 PM on 12/07/2009

Newmark did not take money from eBay for a portion of Craigslist ... It was sold to eBay by a former principal in Craigslist.

[leftylou]

09:45 PM on 12/14/2009

she is on the board

[kkrimmer]

05:08 PM on 12/07/2009

I have found good deals on craigslist. On eBay you need to know your stuff, often a used item is being sold for about the same price as new, and many new items are even more expensive than on amazon, buy.com, or even craigslist. You gotta be a smart shopper. I got great deals on bidtopia.com but there's not a huge selection.

Ebay and google are not my favorites sites for buying and searching. They did it to themselves.

[IslandTyme]

01:13 PM on 12/07/2009

I was an eBay Platinum Powerseller for 7 years and even a paid consultant to eBay corporate for many years. I met monthly with the senior staff at eBay and PayPal and watched helplessly as they morphed into the company that EVERYBODY hates.

It boggles my mind that Meg now thinks she can rally the support necessary to attain public office. I can't think of a single eBayer who would vote for her.

[3dtrix]

09:20 PM on 12/07/2009

Certainly not this one...

[01202009]

12:37 PM on 12/07/2009

Craig could have made billions if all he was interested in was a lot of money. His interests are more people based than that. E-bay was once interesting and fun. Now all they're about is money and a lot of people buy stuff they don't need or want because they're addicted.

Go Craig!

[souroil]

12:28 PM on 12/07/2009

We love you Craig's List! You have made so many people happy! We're pulling for you all the way.
Thanks for not being like Ebay

[Jonahinatickingwhale]

12:27 PM on 12/07/2009

May all the negativity and suffering Whitman, her hand picked successor and ebay have brought upon honest ebay sellers be returned to them one thousand fold.

These are not nice people (ebay) and they do mean, uncaring and self serving things to good people.

[Jack Barron]

11:29 AM on 12/07/2009

Just looked at the Kajagoogoo, or whatever it's called, site and it's almost the exact same site as Craigslist. Even down to the wording and phrases used. FAIL.

[Buffington]

11:45 AM on 12/07/2009

Hardly has any ads. Looks too much like ebay to me. All bright and cheery.

[jalapeno]

11:27 AM on 12/07/2009

I hope Craigslist wins!!

[AristotlePA]

11:21 AM on 12/07/2009

There's room for both services, I just wish that eBay would stop making its clients feel nickel&dimed every time they sell...then is the obvious fact that eBay has chosen a road which heavily favors high-volume sellers with brand -new merchandise, which in effect turns it into vast online retailer with the least of responsibilities involved as far as customer service is concerned - eBay has in effect turned into a franchise of sorts where they provide the brand and the platform, take the money and from there you're on your own. Then it's the constant changes in the GUI interface... eBay has these online "meets" and "universities" or whatever they try to cutesy it up, but if eBay did care what people think we wouldn't be venting here. The only game in town - that's all the explanation anybody needs. So this makes Craigslist even more dangerous as far as eBay is concerned. The way they got in I'm told is via the minority stake held by a former founder of Craiglist . It must be maddening for eBay to be a shareholder and not be able to do anything more but keep tabs on the competition from he inside.

[wolfgangmo]

01:18 PM on 12/08/2009

Skype used to be great until eBay bought it and turned it into shite.

Our company uses Jajah now.

[Littlewords]

11:14 AM on 12/07/2009

Meg, aren't you supposed to be busy working to lose a Governor's race right now?

[kelcuk]

11:12 AM on 12/07/2009

EBAY=Scams
If anything goes wrong on EBAY, its all your fault. A company to be avoided at all costs...

[wish4change]

10:52 AM on 12/07/2009

Why the unflattering picture of Whitman vs the smiling picture of Craig? A little bias showing up right here on Huffpost , perhaps ? ? ? ? Just asking.

[naturallight]

11:08 AM on 12/07/2009

Whitman is a demon Go Craig!

[Brian Gorrell]

10:43 AM on 12/07/2009

I loved Ebay and was a POWER SELLER.
I collected old tools and stuff and found a niche market.

Then e bay really got greedy and ruined the fun of it all for me.
So complicated with this fee and that fee and taxes and oh my...
it all became stressful for me.

it was like I had a boss again.

The exact reason I was with e bay.

I have 3000 perfect ratings on e bay.

Now I never go to the site.

[Buffington]

10:48 AM on 12/07/2009

Ditto (along with countless others)

[jpshotwheels]

01:43 PM on 12/21/2009

Ebay has gone down the tubes, I sold on their since 2001. They make up all the rules, put restrictions on what you can ship things for, the buyers get away with everything now, the seller pays all the fees, does all the work, but ebay dictates how you can and can't do it. I started up adding up all the fees I was paying out to them and you really break even anymore.

The customers have gotten really, really bad.

[Rian Fowler]

10:38 AM on 12/07/2009

Meg Whitman left eBay over 2 years ago- nice fail, HuffPo.

[JohnSawyer]

04:01 AM on 12/08/2009

As the article states, "Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is expected to take the stand, along with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar." Whitman was at eBay when it bought its stake in craigslist.

[wolfgangmo]

01:20 PM on 12/08/2009

Rian left reading comprehension over 2 years ago - nice fail Fowler.