StumbleUpon Falls To eBay For $75m - Thumbs Up Or Down?

June 1st, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Ibrahim just buzzed me with the news that eBay have acquired StumbleUpon for $75m, creating yet another set of .dot com millionaires. According to a eBay spokesperson, StumbleUpon has approximately 2.3 million users and delivers about 5 million recommendations every day.

To be honest I’m a bit disappointed that StumbleUpon decided to get into bed with eBay rather than another suitor, as I’m a big fan of StumbleUpon, and I’m sure eBay intend to use StumbleUpon to steer users towards auctions that they might find interesting.

I’m not sure if I want my browsing behaviour made available to eBay. I love the SU service and use it quite frequently, and it has driven a lot of traffic to my site. One of the attractions of the service is it is fairly ad-free, and I wonder if a fundamental change such as auction ads suddenly appearing will drive users away?

What do you think about the eBay - StumbleUpon merger - thumbs up or down? Do you think it will deliver any synergies, or will it be yet another .com merger which will struggle to create value like Google-YouTube and eBay-PaypalSkype?

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About the Author

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Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and currently runs the Portal and online operations for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. He also writes for Windows 7 News.

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There Are 5 Responses So Far. »

  1. #1

    Comment by Dennis Bjørn Petersen on 1 June 2007:

    Thumbs up. I’m don’t think eBay will “ruin” SU. Hopefully they will create another topic called Auctions and if you pick that you can Stumble various eBay auctions, who knows what kind of crazy stuff you can find that way.

    You don’t think that eBay-PayPal is creating value? Why is that? The only way I pay for auctions is through PayPal.

  2. #2

    Comment by Everton on 1 June 2007:

    You don’t think that eBay-PayPal is creating value? Why is that? The only way I pay for auctions is through PayPal.

    Whoops, meant Skype-will update. eBay had to buy paypal as it was accounting for 70% of payments pre purchase I think

  3. #3

    Comment by Dennis Bjørn Petersen on 1 June 2007:

    Ahh yes then we agree. I think eBay those acquisitions are meant more like an investment. Skype and SU are two very successful companies and eBay wants to expand its community. They certainly have the potential to reach a lot more people now and to cover more areas.

  4. #4

    Comment by listikal on 1 June 2007:

    Middle of road…The acquistion was another in a strange line of acquisitions. Fortunately these larger companies have really yet to ruin any of these smaller ones. Such as Skype? They have really only improved since the $3,000,000,000 purchase.

  5. #5

    Pingback by Pajama Professional - Ditch Your 9 to 5 on 6 June 2007:

    [...] 3. I agree with a lot of Everton’s opinions. Sometimes you just want to read stuff you with which you agree. The blogosphere is full of devil’s advocates and warring politics, it’s nice to just nod and smile when he says that Ebay buying Stumble Upon may not be the best thing ever. [...]

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