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eBay swallows up rival with $152m buyout
Gets into the German fast lane with car ads firm

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 27 January 2004

Auction behemoth eBay announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire a German competitor for $152m. The web-based company, mobile.de, acts as a middleman between vehicle buyers and sellers, featuring around 800,000 classified ads and 22 million users.

eBay's plan for its eight-year-old rival includes offering German car or truck sellers the option of listing their car using mobile.de's classifieds, as well as its own traditional auction format.

The deal still requires regulatory approval from German authorities. If the deal does go through, eBay intends to buy up mobile.de's shares and it's believed that the internet auctioneer may introduce its PayPal online payments service in the country.

eBay's predicted profit levels won't be affected by the acquisition, the company said – it believes it will make revenue of $3bn in 2004, although it didn't do so badly in 2003, ringing up $2.17bn in revenues.