Portal site Yahoo!, deciding that it can’t necessarily be all things to all
people online, will shut down its auction sites in Europe and let eBay pick
up the slack.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! Inc.said it signed a
multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal with San Jose, Calif.-based auction
leader eBay Inc., which will feature a link on the portal
site’s front door in Europe.
Yahoo! launched its auction operation in Britain and Ireland in 1999, and
later expanded it to Italy, Spain, Italy,
Germany and
France. But it never caught on the way execs had hoped and in fact it
trailed eBay, Amazon.comand QXL Ricardo in most European
countries.
Yahoo Europe’s managing director Mark Opzoomer was quoted as saying the
decision was made at the end of the first quarter as it became apparent that
it would be too costly to catch up with competitors.
“Our business would be better served focusing on the core retailing and
commerce businesses,” Opzoomer told Reuters, adding the move would not result
in job losses.
“This is not a deal that is going to shift the competitive landscape in
Europe from our perspective,” eBay Europe managing director Michael Van
Swaaij told Reuters. “We were very much larger than they were.”
Yahoo! has been actively trying to expand its revenue stream following the
decline in Internet advertising, and the auction business has been a part of
that effort.
Financial terms of the Yahoo!-eBay deal were not disclosed, but eBay will be
paying Yahoo! for the marketing exposure. Yahoo! will continueto operate its
auction site in Sweden, Norway and Denmark for the time being. U.S. auction
efforts remain ongoing.