My
Success With eBay
by
John Jakubik
eBAY EXPANDS GLOBAL TRADING PLATFORM
Acquires Half.com: Leading Fixed-Price, Person-to-Person Internet Marketplace
San Jose, Calif., June 13, 2000 — eBay® (NASDAQ: EBAY; www.ebay.com) the world's leading personal trading community, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Half.com (http://www.half.com) a fixed-price, person-to-person trading marketplace. This strategic acquisition broadens the buying and selling choices for eBay's dynamic trading community of over 12 million users and expands eBay's trading platform.
Half.com has created an efficient, user friendly marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade used books, CDs, movies and video games at fixed prices that are at least half off the list price. The company was founded in July 1999 and launched its site in January 2000. Already, Half.com has experienced meteoric growth and now has approximately 250,000 registered users and over 4 million items for sale. According to Media Metrix data, Half.com is among the fastest growing e-commerce sites on the web. PCData reports that Half.com is already the 18th most trafficked shopping site on the web.
"Half.com's fixed-price format complements eBay's current business by giving our existing users new choices for trading," said Meg Whitman, eBay's president and CEO. "Half.com will also attract a whole new group of buyers and sellers to the world's largest trading platform."
Buying and selling on Half.com is quick and easy. A seller simply enters the ISBN code for a book or a UPC code for CDs, videos or movies then describes the condition of the item and selects a price. Buyers enjoy the convenience of a fixed price format with the ease of a credit card purchase.
"Half.com has created a convenient, person-to-person fixed price marketplace for a huge array of merchandise," said Josh Kopelman, Half.com's president and CEO. "This acquisition absolutely accelerates our vision of becoming the premier site for fixed price person-to-person e-commerce."
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter following receipt of necessary approvals. The acquisition is a stock-for-stock merger expected to be accounted for as a pooling of interests. The exact number of shares to be issued will be determined in accordance with a formula but is expected to be between 4.6 and 5.5 million shares. The acquisition will result in significant increases in operating expenses for the combined company for the next several quarters but is expected to be accretive in 2001.
About eBay
eBay (www.ebay.com), the world's largest personal trading community, pioneered person-to-person online trading. eBay has developed an efficient and entertaining trading site on the Web that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. eBay has more than 12 million registered users. Currently, there are over four million items listed for sale and eBay users add more than 600,000 new items daily in more than 4,300 categories, including: antiques; automobiles; books, movies and music; coins and stamps; collectibles; computers; dolls and figures; jewelry and gemstones; photo and electronics; pottery and glass; regionals; sports memorabilia; and toys.
About Half.com
Half.com (www.half.com) offers people an organized online marketplace to buy and sell high quality, previously-owned goods for at least half off list price. Founded in 1999, Half.com has quickly become the premier site for fixed price person-to-person e-commerce.
Forward Looking Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the receipt and timing of regulatory approvals for the transaction, the possibility that the transaction will not close, the reaction of the users of each service to the transaction, the future growth of the Half.com service and the reaction of competitors to the transaction. More information about potential factors which could affect eBay's business and financial results is included in eBay's Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2000 under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and results of Operations." All forward-looking statements are based on information available to eBay on the date hereof, and neither company assumes any obligation to update such statements.
Media Metrix Data were compiled by Half.com from the Media Metrix's mymetrix.com service and are based upon growth in reach percentage from February to April, 2000 in the Media Metrix Shopping category
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