eBay selling Stumbleupon? Not surprised

According to TechCrunch, eBay is looking to unload Stumbleupon, the “crowd-sourcing” Web recommendation engine that the online retailer bought last year for $75-million. Mike Arrington says that reputable sources have told him the company is for sale. I can’t say I’m all that surprised. Not because Stumbleupon isn’t an attractive asset (although whether it was worth $75-million is a different question entirely) but because it never made any sense as part of eBay in the first place. When the rumours of an acquisition first surfaced in April of last year, I said that I didn’t really get it, and despite the attempts by many people to justify the deal since it happened, it has never made much sense to me, and still doesn’t. Combine that with talk of layoffs at eBay in the near future and a sale seems fairly plausible.

Tagged as: eBay, stumbleupon