Another Legal Tussle for eBay–and It’s Not Skype This Time!–as Former CEO and Calif. Guv Hopeful Whitman Kicks Off Craigslist Trial Monday [BoomTown]
Auction giant eBay is headed to court again on Monday and, for once it is nothing to do with the litigious Skype co-founders.
Instead, it’s a battle in Delaware with craigslist, the San Francisco online classified powerhouse that eBay holds a minority ownership position in.
That stake is actually precisely what’s at stake. Currently, the San Jose-based eBay (EBAY) has a less than 25 percent one, although it had acquired about 28 percent in a deal in 2004.
It waged a lawsuit last year against the privately-held craigslist for diluting its ownership position by issuing more stock and, thereby, causing eBay to lose its board seat.
That happened, alleges eBay, through a “coercive plan” by craigslist Founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster.
“We have acted in good faith as a minority shareholder,” said eBay spokesman Alan Marks. “We are simply asking the court to restore our original interest in the company.”
I sent a late email to craiglist’s rep and will post the reply if I get one.
Whitman–who is running for the Republican nomination for California governor–takes the stand on opening day on Monday to talk about the original deal with craiglist.
She will be followed by eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar.
Of course, craiglist has its own suit in San Francisco, alleging eBay stole confidential information to create a competing classified service called Kijiji–a dopey name that BoomTown hereby rules someone should be arrested for thinking up–and other misdeeds.
But, so as to be consistent in its awkward legal messes, there is a Skype link: Its current CEO Josh Silverman had been the craigslist board for eBay and played a key role in developing Kijiji.
Under Whitman’s leadership, ebay also bought Skype in 2005 and then sold a big stake recently.
It was a very controversial sale, which, in turn, led to a series of ugly lawsuits from the Skype co-founders, which were just settled last month.
It will be interesting to see what Whitman, who has recently declared that the disastrous Skype purchase was a good one, says about the craigslist debacle.
Perhaps that eBay should have limited its investing during her watch to antiques and other collectibles?
