Craigslist Sues eBay … Take Your Ball and Go Home!
ADOTAS – In a corporate game of “I’m rubber and you’re glue” Craigslist is slapping eBay with a counter-lawsuit in which it accuses the online auctioneer of stealing corporate trade secrets, among a roster of other unseemly deeds.
Craigslist also charges eBay with unfair competition, diluting its minority stake in its business, fraud, copyright infringement and posting misleading advertisements on Google. (Craigslist claims eBay ran ads for Craigslist rival classified service kijiji – which eBay owns — that masqueraded as Craigslist ads.) Confused yet?
The countersuit (filed yesterday in California) is a response to eBay’s suit (filed in Delaware in April) alleging that Craiglist violated its rights as a minority shareholder. eBay claimed that in January, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and chief Jim Buckmaster, unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in the company – but it didn’t get into specifics. In 2004, eBay bought a 28.4% stake in Craigslist.
“The recent actions by the Craigslist directors have disadvantaged eBay and its investment in Craigslist,” Mike Jacobson, eBay’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in a released statement last month. “Since negotiating our investment with Craigslist’s board in 2004, we have acted openly and in good faith as a minority shareholder, so we were surprised by these recent unilateral actions. We are asking the Delaware court to rescind these recent actions in order to protect eBay’s stockholders and preserve our investment.”
On Craigslist’s blog, in an entry titled “Unlawful and Unfair,” Buckmaster explains the company’s complaint: “We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
We respectfully ask the Superior Court in San Francisco to enjoin this conduct and order eBay to (1) make full restitution to craigslist, (2) disgorge their related profits (3) restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired by means of, or for the purpose of unfair competition, and (4) pay punitive damages for their malicious behavior.”
If Craigslist were to “restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired” itself, a.k.a. buy em back, it would cost the company about $1 billion.
eBay, for its part, released a statement expressing “regret” over Craigslist’s “unfounded and unsubstantiated claims.”
Article Sponsor
More News
Features
- Four Steps To Lead Generation Success: Parts 3, 4 July 18th 2008
- Market Mayhem July 17th 2008
- Why Your Digital Reputation Is Important July 16th 2008
- Goodmail: Video-in-Email the Next Goldmine July 15th 2008
- Can SMS Get McCain Elected? July 14th 2008
Spotlight
Goodmail: Video-in-Email the Next GoldmineADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — Email marketing can be both effective and controversial. As a marketer, this is a great opportunity to [...] more...
Latest News
- Former AOL Exec Launches Online Film Site July 18th 2008
- Study: 75% of Companies To Boost Digital Ad Spend July 18th 2008
- Google, Microsoft Woes Ascend as Stock Plunges July 18th 2008
- WebTrends’s New Tool Tracks Video Engagement July 18th 2008
- Google Snags Contextual Ad Co. for $140M July 18th 2008
- Become.com Scores $8 Million July 18th 2008
- ValueClick Cuts Fiscal Outlook: Staff Next? July 17th 2008
- YouTube Goes to Hollywood July 17th 2008
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
Most Commented
- Why Top Publishers Bash Ad Networks (7)
- Google Sucks: Why It Might Be a Good Thing (7)
- Serious Software Bugs Reported in iPhones (6)
- No Recession For Online Advertising, Promise (4)
- Raiders Of The Lost ROI (4)
- “Cheaper” iPhone Prompts Deceptive Pricing War (4)
- Peer39 Scores $8M, Unveils Semantic Ad Platform (4)
- Why CMOs Can’t Keep Their Jobs (3)
