Shopping.com is a price comparison website,
allowing users to hunt down the cheapest prices
for whatever they are trying to buy. EBay hopes
that by merging the listings on its online
marketplace with the product listings on
Shopping.com, it will drive further traffic
toward its sites.
EBay is paying $21 a share in cash for
Shopping.com, a 20% premium. Founded in 1998,
Shopping.com resisted the lure of the stock
market during the boom years and finally floated
in New York last October at $18 a share. The
price peaked at $32 later that month and has
since been falling back.
EBay is paying $21 per share in cash, a 20%
premium over Shopping.com's $17.40 closing price
prior to the announcement. The deal prices
Shopping.com at a multiple of 4.7 times estimated
revenues this year.
EBay has agreed to a $620m deal to buy the
Israeli firm Shopping.com, as part of an effort
to offset slowing growth in its core business of
online auctions.