Online auctioneer
QXL.com announced Monday
that it has agreed to acquire Allegro, an online auction
site in Poland, from e-commerce company SurfStopShop.
Although Allegro is the largest site of its kind in Poland,
QXL.com will be paying just $75,000 in cash for it. Many
items offered for sale in online auctions often cost more,
but as QXL explained to internet.com, the market in
eastern Europe is undeveloped.
“This acquisition will enable QXL.com to gain a firm foothold in
eastern Europe, one of the most dynamic frontiers for Internet
expansion,” said Jim Rose, chief executive officer of QXL.com.
Arjan Bakker, managing director of SurfStopShop, will serve
as managing director of an expanded QXL operation in Poland,
with the Allegro team joining the increasingly pan-European
online auctioneer.
Together with Matthias Schmidt-Pfitzner, QXL Germany’s managing
director, Bakker will oversee QXL’s expansion into eastern
Europe.
“We are thrilled to be a part of QXL.com and to be providing it
with a solid platform to initiate expansion into Eastern Europe,”
said Bakker.
Since its U.K. launch in November 1997, QXL.com has expanded
to its present position where it runs consumer-to-consumer
and business-to-consumer auctions in eight languages and
currencies.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq National
Market, QXL.com offers auctions in
German QXL.de,
French QXL.fr,
Italian QXL.it,
Dutch QXL.nl,
Norwegian QXL.no,
Danish QXL.dk, and
Spanish QXL.es.