Counting on Each Other

eBay Inc. signed a deal making
auction management tools and services company Andale Inc. the sole provider of integrated
counters and counter-related services to eBay sellers.

The counters will be available directly from the eBay marketplace and
accessible from the listing process. Counters are a value-added tool used by
auction sellers and are the sellers’ gateway to auction management.

Financial terms of the three-year agreement were not disclosed.

eBay sellers will have the option to add Andale’s Honesty-brand of counters
free of charge directly from the eBay “Sell Your Item” page — a page that
sellers use when they create a listing on eBay.

Andale’s Honesty Counters track every unique buyer who visits a particular
listing or ad along with several other statistics that help sellers to time
the placement of future listings. All sellers who list merchandise on a
weekly basis will now be able to conveniently add counters to their listings
and manage the activity of those listings on eBay.

“We believe that integrating Andale’s Honesty Counters into eBay’s Sell Your
Item page will make it easier for eBay sellers to include counters in their
listings and track the activity of those listings,” said Jeff Jordan, senior
vice president of eBay U.S.

Andale will also host a co-branded Web site, directly integrated with and
accessible from several areas throughout the eBay marketplace, where sellers
can view their counter statistics and monitor their auction activity.

Munjal Shah, chief executive officer of Andale, said that about 600,000 businesses using Andale
services are responsible for almost 31 percent of eBay’s auctions, so the
deal was “a natural choice for eBay.”

Andale tools and services include Honesty-branded image hosting, counters,
and one-step listing tools. For higher-volume sellers, Andale’s Auction
Management Services can be used to automate and manage all aspects of online
selling, from product merchandising and inventory and financial management to
customer communications and a secure, one-stop payment-processing system.