eBay Steps Ahead with Successful Acquisition and New Toolbar Launch

By Milena Sotirova
HostReview.com Editor DevStart, Inc.
Monday, January 17, 2005; 03:24 PM

Online auction giant eBay recently topped the news with efforts to integrate new technology into its structure. The auction announced the release of a new version of the free eBay Toolbar. Starting last week, users of previous versions of eBay Toolbar were allowed to upgrade to this new version.

eBay announced recently that it will acquire Kurant, a provider of e-business software for small and medium-sized businesses (www.kurant.com). In addition to the asset acquisition, eBay also expects to hire nearly all of the Kurant team and continue to support Kurant's current customer base, company says. The transaction is expected to close in the current quarter.

Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses.

A representative from eBay said the company does not expect the acquisition, which is a cash transaction, to have a material impact on 2005 net revenue and earnings.

Thursday last week the company announced its plan to boost the monthly fee it charges sellers by 60 percent. Starting Feb. 18, eBay said the monthly subscription fee for people who operate "Basic eBay Stores" will increase from $9.95 to $15.95.

The eBay Toolbar facilitates both buying and selling. The improvements include one button for alerts, which will allow the user to access all alerts from one convenient location, as well as an additionally implemented button allowing quick access to the items user is watching or bidding on. The selling button allows the user to check the status of the top active listings. There are also buttons for PayPal and other useful features.

The company announced in December that it will be enhancing the current End of Auction (EOA) and End of Transaction (EOT) emails. The enhancements will allow sellers to add custom messaging.

Milena Sotirova is Editor of DevStart, Inc.