Germanys Ricardo.de
AG, the biggest competitor to the local eBay subsidary, this week took a 29.4 percent
stake in the logistics start-up myfreightmarket.com.
Based in Hamburg, myfreightmarket.com aims to provide Internet-based transport and shipping services. The freight exchange will include services
along the whole transportation chain, including sea, air, and land shipping.
Myfreightmarket.com fits into the participation strategy in the market for
trade between businesses over the Internet, commented Christoph Linkwitz,
executive chairperson of ricardo.de AG. Ricardo already holds a stake in tallyman.de (30 percent), allocation network (25
percent), myparadise
(10 percent), similan.com, 17.5 percent, and energy24 (50 percent).
Ricardo.de itself has only existed since 1998. The company is following a
similar strategy to its big role models such as Amazon.com, which also buy
in fresh know-how by taking a stake in start-up companies.