Why Is eBay Ticked Off At Craigslist?

With eBay throwing down the legal gauntlet over alleged dilution of its stake in the listings site, speculation abounds over the reason why.

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