EBay Is Said to Have Bought Local-Information Startup WHERE
April 20, 2011, 9:53 AM EDTBy Joseph Galante and Douglas MacMillan
(Updates with today’s trading in last paragraph.)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- EBay Inc., owner of the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace, has acquired WHERE Inc., a service that lets mobile-phone users get information about nearby businesses, a person familiar with the matter said.
WHERE, based in Boston, helps more than 4 million active users recommend favorite stores, restaurants and other local establishments. EBay won’t disclose terms of the deal, which may be announced as soon as today, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the deal hasn’t been made public.
EBay will use the takeover to expand beyond its online commerce site and reach consumers as they shop in brick-and- mortar stores or search for items via smartphones. The company said in December that it bought Milo.com, a service that helps people find items in nearby shops.
EBay, based in San Jose, California, has more than $6.5 billion in cash and short-term investments and raised $1.5 billion in debt in October. The company also announced plans in March to acquire GSI Commerce Inc. for $2.4 billion.
PayPal, an online-payments service owned by EBay, is also preparing to expand into storefronts and hired Blackhawk Network founder Don Kingsborough in March to oversee that push.
John Pluhowski, a spokesman for EBay, declined to comment.
EBay rose 68 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $31.83 at 9:36 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It had risen 12 percent this year before today.
--Editors: Tom Giles, Young-Sam Cho
To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net; Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
