eBay sells StumbleUpon back to founders

Davey Winder
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 04:29

Business IT - Technology

eBay seems to have started a new 'acquisitions buy-back' auction category as StumbleUpon is sold and Skype could be next.

Just as we had been getting excited about the notion of the original founders, and sellers,  buying back Skype from eBay with a billion dollar discount so the founders of StumbleUpon come out of left field and surprise us with their own purchase.

Just two years ago, the founders of social networking based Internet discovery site StumbleUpon sold it lock, stock and two smoking barrels to eBay in a high profile deal.

eBay, on something of a pre-credit crunch acquisition spree, purchased StumbleUpon in a US $75 million cash deal. At the time many of us could not understand why, or quite how StumbleUpon would fit into the eBay business.

It would appear that confusion was warranted, as eBay has never really done much with the business. StumbleUpon co-founder Garrett Camp says in a press release that "we realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses. It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths."
 
Although the precise details of the deal are yet to emerge, the consensus of opinion is that eBay would have sold the business for less than the $75 million it paid in 2007.

The new owners consist of the original founders, Garret Camp and Geoff SMith, along with investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital. Garret  Camp takes on the role of new CEO.

"This change makes it possible for StumbleUpon to continue to innovate and focus on becoming the Web’s largest recommendation service" Camp told us., adding that there are several new products and features in the pipeline.

Founded in 2001, StumbleUpon currently has in excess of 7.4 million users and serves up 425 million recommendations per month. There are also some 20,000+ advertisers using the system to promote their products and services.