Chatty operator picks up auctioneer

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 03 June 2008 12:31

IT Industry - Strategy

Australian auction site OZtion has been acquired by Jumbuck Entertainment, an ASX-listed operator of mobile chat services.

OZtion claims one million unique visitors per month and over 275,000 registered accounts.

"With over 670,000 items for sale, OZtion is the clear challenger to become the biggest online auction website in Australia," said Adrian Risch, CEO of Jumbuck.

"With eBay's recent restrictive changes, many buyers and sellers have been switching to OZtion. Jumbuck has a giant community of users and we can help bring this great service to many new buyers and sellers."

Auction sites such as OZtion have reportedly benefited from eBay's recent decision to require sellers to use PayPal as their payment processor. Although the company claims it will improve security, a vocal group of sellers are objecting because of the fees charged and by what they view as unacceptable business practices by PayPal.

The OZtion management team - including founders Philip Druce and Kelvin Yip - and other staff will remain with the company. OZtion will operate as a new division of Jumbuck.

The change of structure is aimed at attracting additional investors and expanding OZtion's operations.

Want to know how much the deal was worth? Turn to page 2.