Reports are coming out of Denmark that eBay has acquired the company that runs DBA, the “eBay of Denmark” for 2.1 billion Kroner, or about $383 million (here’s an article in Danish).
DBA, founded in 1995, attracts around a million visitors a month, and is a top ten Danish website. 275,000 new listings are added each month, according to its website.
The site is owned by Blue Avis, founded in 1981, which is a free newspaper with a circulation of around 500,000 per week. The company has 225 employees.
Update: More news -Ebay has also acquired BillMeLater, and announced 10% layoffs.
Wow that’s like the smallest post I have seen on TC so far.
no, this was the shortest post ever on techcrunch:
http://www.tech...5/25/twitter-2/
I’m filling this one out as more info comes in.
More info here: http://thenextw...0-million-euro/
Lol wow that really IS the shortest post ever.
“…. I have seen on TC so far.”
^^^^^^^^^
@Kage: Surprised? It’s from Arrington. Seems it is not important to inform us how much the annual revenues of DBA.dk is. Then we could guess whether the price is high or low in the current economic situation.
What’s the point? Does it make a difference at all?
I think it is a compromise between being first and being informative. It is ok to have short posts like this as long as it is updated with more details as and when author collects them.
Being a Dane myself and a user of dba.dk I’m very surprised by this.
DBA (Den Blå Avis = The Blue (news)Paper). Started out as a weekly paper with people selling their used items. I think it cost a couple of dollars.
They still publish the paper, which is free now, so when you submit your item on DBA.dk you get the option of getting it published in the paper or the web.
Ebay also bought bilbasen.dk, which is one of Denmark’s biggest used car sites.
I’m still not sure why, they would buy dba.dk. It’s a great site, but quite expensive for such a small site compared to other European used item sites.
big step for eBay
Thanks, Dennis. Now inform us with some numbers about the annual revenues of DBA.dk
Revenue 2008: app. 55 mill. USD (dba.dk, bilbasen.dk, bilinfo.dk etc.)
Earning 2008: app. 10 mill. USD (dba.dk, bilbasen.dk, bilinfo.dk etc.)
Big step for eBay .
Hi Michael,
What Kristian E stated is correct… I am leaning towards calling this a good deal on both parts! Karsten Ree (95% owner) has plenty of cash, so he was not forced to sell. Ebay would have a very hard time entering the skandinavian market, if not impossible. DBA has a firm stronghold in that business. I know DBA and Ebay have been in talks for 4 years on this deal, where DBA has refused selling several times! He will now spend time on his GreenTech (bioethanol) and and his danish safaripark!:)
Best regards
Benjamin
How is $383M for 1 million visitors a month a good deal? Do these one million visitors have some seriously high ARPU? Is it a technology deal? Is a portion of the Danish classifieds market really that valuable?
Press release mentions getting technology and expertise inhouse to spread across global portfolio.
As Robin mentions it’s just as much about inhouse expertise.
Printed classifieds are still big in countries China and India and DBA have the knowledge.
And a very valuable tool for car sellers called Bilinfo.
More info here: http://www.theb...edge-behind-it/ (shameless promotion I know)
How eBay gonnqa buy that company and then struggle to sell StumbleUpon for the price they bought it for…crazy!
Could be a good deal if the print business is sold off. The online parts fit nicely with kijiji and ebay motors or mobile.de, respectively.
I think the biggest reason for eBay buying DBA is to enter the Scandinavian market, which actually is the fifth largest economy in Europe and 10th largest in the world. We’re responsible for 10% of the ecommerce renevue in Europe, although we only cover 5% of EU’s population.
Maybe this is a crazy price, they overbid on Skype (which actually is Swedish-Danish), I don’t know.
I’m just hoping for an actual eBay localised site, so we don’t have to play with the British and German versions.
don’t see it doing much for ebay, denmark? come one
http://gatesand...s.blogspot.com/
damnnnnnnnnnnnnn alot of money.
one big mistake ebay denmark has bought the wrong homepage for selling things… insteand of buying dba.. they should have bought
http://www.qxl.dk
reason is that there are many sellers and buyers .. and there is a technical platform similar ebay … reason for knowing this.. im the biggest seller in my specific area in demark and on ebay.com ..