EBay Files Governance Lawsuit Against Craigslist

Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:20 PM PDT

EBay has filed a lawsuit alleging that some changes made by Craigslist's board of directors have diluted eBay's investment in the online classified site.

EBay filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, the company said. The complaint was filed under seal because some of the information about Craigslist is governed by confidentiality restrictions, eBay said.

EBay, which acquired a 28.4 percent interest in Craigslist in 2004, didn't provide details about the actions taken by Craigslist's board, but it said that Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark have entered into transactions that have "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent."

Buckmaster and Newmark have breached their fiduciary duties, eBay alleged. An eBay spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment.

A Craigslist spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the company would likely issue a statement on its blog later in the day.

"The recent actions by the Craigslist directors have disadvantaged eBay and its investment in Craigslist," Mike Jacobson, eBay senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. "Since negotiating our investment with Craigslist's board in 2004, we have acted openly and in good faith as a minority shareholder, so we were surprised by these recent unilateral actions."

Sponsored Resource:Are you ready for virtualization? Try the sever assessment tool.
Sponsored Resource:Stay at home servers. Learn more about a home server for your family.
Sponsored Resource:Get the communications, data, and security a business needs in one neat package. Learn more.
Sponsored Resource:Learn more about ultra light notebooks from Asus and the best warranty in the industry.
Sponsored Resource:Thinking about a new Laptop? Lenovo has models to meet everyone's needs.
Sponsored Resource:Get the truth about remanufactured ink. Learn more from HP.
Sponsored Resource:Six smart ways to grow small business IT

Recommend this story?
Vote Yes
Vote No
0 Yes
0 No
Email
Comment

Community Comments

News For Your Business

More News

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Business Center News

Network Management - July 19, 2008
Network Managers Fear Security Threats From Within The biggest security threats come from within an organization, study says.
Internet - July 19, 2008
Social Networks: Good for Business? Businesses are missing a bet if they're not paying attention to the Facebook generation, analyst says.
Wireless Networking - July 19, 2008
Don't Jump to WiMax Too Soon, Gartner Says Businesses should hold off on investing in WiMax until the technology catches on, Gartner cautions.
Smart Phones - July 19, 2008
Motorola Sues When Exec Goes to Apple The former executive is accused of revealing trade secrets when he went to work on the iPhone.

Latest Expert Blogs

Glenn Fleishman on Hardware - July 17, 2008 11:23 AM
Solid State Drives Accelerate into Market Solid state drives are about to make solid improvements in price, performance, and power usage.
Neil McAllister on Software - July 18, 2008 8:54 PM
Going Mobile with Windows Live Mesh Microsoft's new, networked file synchronization service can keep your files in order across multiple devices.
Erik Larkin on the Web - July 17, 2008 11:58 AM
Have You Fixed Your Company's DNS Servers? Here's a quick test to see if your company's DNS servers, which guide all Internet traffic, are at risk from a major flaw disclosed last week.

All Blogs

Featured Resources

Premier Content From Our Sponsors

Cisco Small Business Center Does your network give your business an advantage? Click here to find out...
Microsoft Servers Center Work from home? Find out how the Windows Home Server can help you.

Best Prices on Smartphones

N95 8GB SmartphonePrice: $500.00

4.57 stars

N82 Cell Phone - BlackPrice: $478.83

5.00 stars

N70 Cell PhonePrice: $439.97

5.00 stars

E51 SmartphonePrice: $273.99

5.00 stars

Featured Whitepapers

White papers, case studies and product info from top brands

An Introduction to Networked Storage This paper provides an introduction to the basics of networked storage and its relevance to smaller business operations where storage specialists are typically not found. It discusses the origins and development of the latest advances in storage tec...
VMware Solutions for Small to Medium Businesses Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are always looking for new ways to optimize their existing IT investments. VMware equips SMBs with technology that allows them to cost effectively optimize the use of their existing IT assets and resources as wel...