The Inquisitr » ebay

eBay Search Down

Duncan Riley — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:10:44 +0000

Troubled online auction giant eBay can add a new problem to their ongoing issues today (Nov 21) with eBay search going completely down for all users.

The issue, as the name suggests, results in eBay search not working by simply failing to deliver any results from the search box.

A notice to the eBay systems announcement page said that “due to errors in some of our backend systems, members may be seeing different errors in Search. This could be that “We were unable to run the search results you entered. Please try again in a few minutes” or a blank page, or simply the browser being unable to display the page.”

The message from eBay, which finishes by saying “Please note that we are working as quickly as possible to get this resolved” was posted at 1:37pm PST, where as we’re both writing this post, and seeing eBay search not working at 4:05pm PST, so 2 1/2 hours later.

We’ll update the post if we hear more. General auctions on eBay seem to be unaffected, although obviously there’s no way to search for specific auctions.

French Court Orders eBay To Pay Up Again For Selling Faux LV Products

AHN — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:47:50 +0000

Paris, France (CNS) – eBay has been fined once again for selling fake Louis Vuitton products. The online auction site was ordered by a French court on Friday to pay 80,000 euros [$117,000] to the luxury fashion house for allowing patrons to sell fake items on their website.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton alleged that eBay failed to adequately guard keywords and links on its site, leading shoppers to counterfeit goods.

A Paris court agreed. It ordered eBay to pay around $117,000 as compensation and said it would have to pay another 1,000 euros [$1,500] for any subsequent infringement.

This is not the first time the online vending site was ordered to pay up. In June 2008, a Paris court ordered eBay to pay almost 40 million euros [around $60 million] in damages for selling faux LV products.

The court ruled in favor of six LVMH brands, barring eBay from selling four perfumes, Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain, on its websites.

eBay Plans Skype IPO By 2010

AHN — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:00:04 +0000

San Jose, CA (AHN) – eBay, which entered Tuesday into a definitive agreement with four investors to sell 65 percent of its stake in Skype Technologies for $1.9 billion, plans to offer shares of Skype through an initial public offering next year.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, eBay said it plans to offer 57.3 million shares of common stocks which has an aggregate value as of Aug. 5, 2009 of $171 million. eBay had planned the Skype IPO as early as April this year.

Skype is the maker and developer of the Voice over Internet Protocol, which is used by millions of people and companies around the world to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files.

The investor group, made up of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, technology firm Silver Lake, global venture capital company Index Ventures and newly launched venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, will buy the 65 percent share from eBay, which will keep the remaining 35 percent holding in Skype.

CPP Investment Board senior vice president Mark Wiseman said in a statement, “This acquisition represents an opportunity to acquire a leader in the rapidly growing Internet telecommunications market and one of the most strategically valuable Internet brands in the marketplace. We look forward to working with our partners to help grow Skype in this accelerating industry.”

The CPP Investment Board has lately been into an acquisition mode for telecom companies. In early 2009, it bought Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group. Macquarie has a 48 percent hold in Arqiva – an infrastructure provider for television, radio and wireless communications in the U.K. – and owns 100 percent of Broadcast Australia.

Its investment in Skype is deemed a wise decision since Skype earned $551 million in 2008 and has 405 million users as of December 2008. The board has 17 million contributors and beneficiaries in Canada and has a $116.6 billion fund as of mid-2009.

eBay CEO John Donahoe said, “There is no doubt in my mind that the talented players that make up this investment group will enable strong growth of Skype in the years to come?. The management team at Skype is one of the most innovative in the industry, and their talent and innovation will be enhanced through this partnership. For eBay, this transaction allows us to unlock both immediate and long-term value while benefiting from talented partners to help Skype accelerate its growth momentum.”

eBay forecasts Skype’s income to go beyond $1 billion by 2011.

Donahoe added, “We’ve acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners. Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum.”

eBay Sells 65% Of Skype For $2.75 Billion

AHN — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:23:07 +0000

New York, NY (AHN) – Online auction powerhouse eBay has inked a deal to unload 65% of the voice over IP (VoIP) chat client Skype for $2.75 billion. In April, eBay announced plans to spin off Skype after initially acquiring the company in 2005 for $2.6 billion.

Now, eBay confirmed it has struck a deal with an investor group led by Silver Lake that includes Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board. The deal includes almost $2 billion in cash and the rest in notes.

“This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype,” eBay President and CEO John Donahoe explained. “We’ve acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners.”

“Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum,” Donahoe added.

Would you spend over $4M to lie on top of Marilyn Monroe?

Steven Hodson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:48:29 +0000

Elsie Poncher must be thanking her lucky stars that there are people out there with more money than brains.

Her husband, Richard Poncher, has been buried in the in a crypt at Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park for the last 23 years and while that may not seem all that earth shattering the fact that the crypt below him houses the crypt of Marilyn Monroe definitely makes it interesting. Elsie Poncher said that when her husband was dying he made her promise to put him in the crypt upside down or else he would haunt her for the rest of her life.

But everyone it seems these days is falling on hard times and it is no different with Elsie who decided that to be able to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home she would move her husband’s remains to the adjacent crypt that he had also paid for and auction off the one he had been in – the one over top of Marilyn Monroe.

Like everything else it seems these days the crypt went up on eBay for auction on August 14th where the bidding started at $500,000 and quickly grew to $1 million in two days. The auction closed out today with Elsie pocketing a cool $4,602,100 million.

Damn.

image courtesy of LA Times

Xbox 360 autographed by Sarah Palin going for a million bucks

Chris Greenhough — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:03:18 +0000

Doggone it, here’s something. Ebay seller dmorrill123 has a luxury item that most of us Joe Six-packs might struggle to afford: a Sarah Palin-signed Xbox 360. The starting bid? A snip at $1.1 million. *winks*

“The infamous Sarah Palin XBOX 360 was autographed at the governors [sic] picnic on July 24, 2009, in Wasilla, Alaska, just two days before her resignation as governor of that state. You can own this 60GB, perfect-condition, one-of-a-kind item before her expected run for president of the United States of America in 2012.”

dmorrill provides photographic proof of his encounter with Palin (below), but whether or not the former Alaska Governor signed it is not the issue here. The issue is: one point one million bucks lolwut? That’s 3,666 new 60GB Xbox 360s, minus some sharpie ink. Plus a game or two, probably.

If this is a fake (and despite the obviously ludicrous price, I have a hunch it’s the real thing), then the seller at least did his research – Palin was at the governors’ picnic on the day the advert states.

[Ebay, via Kotaku]

Did eBay admit that they are stupid beyond belief?

Steven Hodson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:35:00 +0000

It made big news in 2005 when eBay bought up Skype to the tune of $2.6 billion with a lot of talk about how it would change how online auction could done. Well here we are four years later and eBay still hasn’t figured out how to wire it into their existing auction business. It has gotten to the point that they are even talking about spinning it out as a separate company on the hunt for an IPO.

Now as smart as that might be there is a great big hitch right in the middle of all this – eBay doesn’t own the core technology that makes Skype work. That still belongs to the original founders of Skype through their company Joltid. It is also the same technology that eBay has been paying licensing fees to Joltid so that they could keep Skype running.

Uhm. Excuse me but just how brain dead is a company that will spend $2.6Billion on a company and its products but not make sure that they end up owning the very core part of that company that actually makes the product work. I’m sorry but that has to the biggest blunder in the world of tech and internet business that I have ever seen.

As it is right now eBay is headed to British High Court to try and force Joltid to let it continue to use the technology. However they are already warning people that there might be a chance that the technology they are developing in-house to replace what they were licensing from Joltid.

eBay is saying that if they can’t come to an agreement with Joltid and their software solution isn’t ready by the deadline they may have to shut Skype down. As well even if they do manage to get their software solution up and running in time Skype users may experience lose of functionality in Skype.

In a quarterly report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, eBay said in no uncertain terms that if it lost the right to use the software it would most likely have to shut Skype down.

eBay said it was working on developing ‘‘alternative software’’ to that licensed through Joltid, but this ‘‘may not be successful, may result in loss of functionality or customers even if successful, and will in any event be expensive’’.

‘‘If Skype was to lose the right to use the Joltid software as the result of the litigation, and if alternative software was not available, Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible,’’ eBay wrote.

In the filing eBay also said that, even if it was successful in developing alternative software, the technical challenge of assuring backward compatibility with older versions of Skype’s technology ‘‘may be difficult to overcome’’

Source: The Age :: Shock threat to shut Skype

Jeez no wonder Meg Whitman ran when she did.

Oh my…God in my Salami!

Duncan Riley — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:25:29 +0000

We’ve seen all sorts of strange religious related appearances before, but this one surely sizzles. A South Florida woman frying salami was shocked to find that God had left his mark, in the form of his name.

Nancy Simoes claims that she didn’t see God coming, but none the less managed to discover the letters across three pieces of salami in order. She told local media that some people may think she’s crazy, but “I can’t make this up. … it’s there in the burn marks.”

The only remaining question for Simoes is how to preserve the salami for its inevitable sale on eBay. A local TV report as follows:

eBay Announces New Cutbacks: 700 Jobs Gone

JR — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:05:21 +0000

eBay is closing an entire customer service facility, leading to the elimination of 700 jobs.

The center, located in Vancouver, Canada, will shut down by this coming September. eBay calls the move a step in its plan to “consolidate” its customer service facilities.

“It is eBay’s intent to increase the number of employees at its Salt Lake City facility, which currently employs more than 900 customer service agents, and at certain other facilities globally,” the company said in a statement.

eBay just recently announced plans to spin off Skype to get back to the basics of its business. The service’s original founders have expressed interest in buying back the communications company.

eBay just finished a second consecutive weak quarter, with earnings most recently being down 22 percent from the same time one year ago.

ebay

Hand of God Rock Wall for sale on eBay

Duncan Riley — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:12:11 +0000

We’ve seen Jesus toast, Virgin Mary Crackers, and even the odd satan related item in the past, but for a change we have something new: the Hand of God Rock Wall.

Paul Grayhek from Northern Idaho claims the 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide hand appeared in his backyard after a rockfall during Lent on March 8. “I prayed between licking my wounds and looking for a job,” he told CNN. “We rarely get rockfalls and this formation is 20 feet from my house. It’s definitely a symbol of the hand of God in my life.”

Naturally the hand is up for sale on eBay (here) and bidding is currently at $102.51. There are a couple of catches: the buyer has to remove the hand, restore the ground where the hand is currently located, and last but not least, pay for all “city, county, state or federal permits, easements and/or fees.”

If jumping through hoops to get the hand of god is too much for you, an alternative listing on eBay is offering the “finger of god,” with bidding currently at $10.50.

eBay Auction: The Climate Change Thumb Rest

Dennis Bjørn Petersen — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:55:44 +0000

This original Thumb Rest is designed and initialed by Bebe von Haferflockenlieber and was owned by a renowned international Thumb Wrestling Champion.

As a child the champion lost his puppy to a tornado, so all proceedings from this auction will go to Stamp Out Tornadoes Soon (SOTS). SOTS is an organization that is determined to controle the climate.

See the Thumb Rest eBay auction here, but you’ll have to bid at least $11.

How many times have we found ourselves in the middle of a downpour without our umbrellas, lamenting, “If only someone would do something about the weather”!

StumbleUpon goes indie

Duncan Riley — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:21:50 +0000

StumbleUpon has gone independent, parting company with eBay who acquired the social surfing startup two years ago for $75 million.

The acquisition was lead by founders Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, as well as Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital. The price of the acquisition (or is that buy-back?) was not disclosed, but is believed to be less than the $75 million eBay paid for the company at the top of the last tech boom.

“We are grateful to eBay for its guidance. However, we realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses. It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths,” said Garrett Camp in a statement. “This change makes it possible for StumbleUpon to continue to innovate and focus on becoming the Web’s largest recommendation service.”

Despite the lack of “long term synergies,” the company has grown at eBay, with 7.4 million users and 425 million recommendations per month. The company also claims it has 20,000 advertisers.

StumbleUpon

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Skype Buyback: A Real-World ‘Undo’ Process?

JR — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:11:39 +0000

Skype’s founders are looking to buy back their creation from eBay, according to a recent report by The New York Times. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are trying to raise enough money to repurchase the service they sold four years ago, the paper suggests.

Possible Skype Sale

The duo sold Skype for an end-total of $3.1 billion, including bonus payouts, back in 2005. Now, they seem to be rethinking that decision. The Times quotes someone with “knowledge of their discussions” as saying the two are actively working to generate a billion dollars in financing.

While eBay hasn’t directly commented on the reports, the company’s CEO has apparently indicated in the past that he’d be willing to consider a sale, noting Skype’s “few synergies with [eBay's] core e-commerce and payments businesses.”

A Skype sale would likely happen at a price around $1.7 billion, analysts tell The Times.

Wonder if all the recent attention (and business potential) surrounding the Skype iPhone app release has anything to do with this?

Skype

ebay

Overkill: scientists building laser system to kill mosquitoes. But wait, there’s more!

Duncan Riley — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:45:16 +0000

Scientists in Seattle are developing a laser based attack system that will shoot down mosquitoes.

If that’s not overkill enough, it gets better: the system is based on the Strategic Defense Initiative proposal (Star Wars), the satellite based laser system championed by Ronald Reagan in the 80s, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

But wait, there’s another two twists.

The first one is that astrophysicist who is designing the system is the same astrophysicist who developed the original Star Wars idea. Second: the request to build the laser system came from former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

The system is all about combating Malaria. “We like to think back then we made some contribution to the ending of the Cold War. Now we’re just trying to make a dent in a war that’s actually gone on a lot longer and claimed a lot more lives,” said one of the scientists.

OK, I lied, there’s one last twist: the parts used in the mockup of the system were purchased from eBay.

So here’s the short version: Retired defense department scientists working to impress Bill Gates have used cold war technology acquired on eBay to build a laser based offensive system against Mosquitos. You just can’t make this stuff up.

UK to offer eBay style ratings for Government services

Duncan Riley — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:15:10 +0000

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that the UK Government will soon allow the public to give eBay style ratings for Government services.

The ability to provide feedback will be offered for Government funded doctors, hospitals, schools and councils. “We have clearly got the balance wrong when online businesses have higher standards of transparency than they public services we pay for and support” said Brown.

According to The Next Web, the first ratings website for local council services is due in May this year, and for Doctors in the northern summer.

No word yet from Britain’s army of solicitors, because they’re all down at the local pub celebrating the news.

Ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman confirms California Governor run

Duncan Riley — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:17:32 +0000

Ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman has confirmed that she is running for Governor of California.

Whitman took the first formal step today, launching a committee to back her campaign.

“California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history – a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit,” Whitman said in a statement. “I refuse to stand by and watch it fail.”

Whitman also launched her website at megwhitman.com, with a slogan of Meg 2010, and the following opening statement

A New California, simply put, is returning California to the time when it ranked first among the nation in prosperity, education, and quality of life. Meg Whitman believes that, together we can rebuild our Golden State.

Despite its liberal voting base, California has a history of voting for Republican Governors.

(in part via Reuters)

Best of eBay: Make history with an Obama Spiderman Domain Name! Cheap at only $10,000

Duncan Riley — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:00:52 +0000

The 44th President

Barack Obama & Spiderman

Team up

A True Historic Moment

Sounds like a great offer, until you get to the fine print: the offer is for the domain obamaspidey.com, and the seller has a starting bid on it of $10,000. Still, the logo is sort of cool….or maybe not.

You can follow the Obama Spiderman auction here or below:

Could Skype be a Web-Ex Killer?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:21:22 +0000

Skype has launched a new Mac client that adds one particularly interesting feature: desktop sharing.

The new Skype allows call or chat participants to share all or part of their desktops on demand, emulating the core service of Web-Ex and a pile of similar companies.

There’s some other interesting new features as well, Twitter like status messages, WiFi access and better usability, but it’s the screen sharing that is potentially the most disruptive. All of a sudden over 100 million users just got access to a free desktop sharing platform.

A lot of the Web-Ex style services do offer additional features, as does Web-Ex itself, so the comparison isn’t perhaps apples and apples, and some also offer free services as well, so the potential of undercutting existing services on price doesn’t come into play. The killer is simply having this service at hand, on demand, and without the usual hassle of having to set up a share beforehand. There’s also no need for an additional download outside of Skype itself which some services demand; and as I’ve discovered more than once some services are often Windows only where as this available to everyone…well eventually anyway, Windows users can view a Mac shared desktop over Skype now, even if they can’t share their own quite desktops yet.

It’s great to see the Mac version of Skype getting some attention; usually it lags well behind the Windows version for new features, and this continued push forward with improvements and great value ads can only bide the company well if and when eBay tries to sell it later this year.

Disruptive Techonlogy has a demo video that includes the desktop sharing as follows:

Meg Whitman Quits Boards, Prepping for Governor Run

Duncan Riley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:30:10 +0000

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman looks set to announce a run for Governor of California after quitting the corporate boards she sat on.

Whitman has now resigned from the boards of Procter & Gamble, eBay, and Dreamworks Animation. A source quoted in the Wall Street Journal said Whitman could announce her candidacy for governor in the next four to six weeks.

Whitman took a high profile during the 2008 Presidential Election as an advisor to John McCain, and has strong contacts with high profile campaigners in the Republican Party. Her campaign team will consist of Mitt Romney staff according to the report; Whitman backed Romney for the GOP spot until swinging behind McCain.

Whitman will face California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell for the role. Current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s term expires in January 2011.

Death Merchandise: You can buy the Big Bopper’s Casket

Samantha DeWitt — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:30:48 +0000

In what has to be the wierdest auction on ebay yet (yes worse than A-Rod’s undies and the Jesus toast) you will be able to buy the casket that the Big Bopper was buried in, pictured above. The family of the late 1950s pop star JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson ais going to auction his casket on eBay sometime next week some forty eight years after he died in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.

Sadly, or happily whichever way you look at it, the corpse won’t be sold with the casket. The Big Bopper’s steel casket was exhumed last year from his original grave at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Beaumont Texas, so it could be moved to a more visible location with a life-size statue and historic marker.

The exhumed casket is apparently in ok condition after being buried for 48 years. It has minor rust spots and a white lime stain where several inches of water once leaked into the surrounding vault, but according to the family there was no evidence water had ever seeped into the casket itself.

So its a bit of a fixer upper then if you are thinking you might like to be buried in it.

Apparently the son, Jay Richardson is going to use the money to finance a tribute show. I think, Jay Richardson, the best tribute you could have given the guy is to not inflict yet another tribute show on the world.

You can see a side view of the casket here. This shot was taken when Jay Richardson first saw his dad, when the csket was popped open.

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