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We can't see any reason to hate Craigslist. Its minimalist classifieds model gives everyone save certain real estate and job listing posters a free avenue to reach potential buyers of goods and services.

As we noted previously, eBay filed suit against Craigslist over unspecified actions: "Newmark and Buckmaster adopted measures that, among other things, unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest in craigslist by more than 10 percent," eBay said in a statement.

The actual offense remains confidential, which we see as an indication eBay filed this suit to force Craigslist to rework whatever action it took. Peter Zollman at Classified Intelligence speculated about what these actions may have been:

There are only a few possibilities:

• It could be that Craigslist issued more private, preferred stock shares. That could possibly affect EBay’s stake, since it’s speculated widely that it bought common shares from a former Craigslist employee, while Newmark and Buckmaster reportedly hold preferred shares.
• It could be that Craiglist issued more common stock. Taking the presumptions above as true, that could affect value.
• It could be that Newmark and Buckmaster sold a portion of the company to another party. Or gave a portion away, which is possible because money doesn’t seem to particularly motivate these two, and it’s not as though Craigslist needs to raise capital.

Zollman suggested eBay picked up its stake in Craigslist for between $10 million and $12 million in 2002 from ex-Craigslist staffer Phillip Knowlton. Speculation that eBay paid a lot more, in the $30 million range, would have been noticed in SEC filings, Zollman contended.

eBay's action looks more like an effort to maintain a status quo with its stake, unless eBay really thinks it could make a killing with a sale. Alas, confidentiality of the lawsuit probably prevents us from ever learning why.