“German engineering” is often a selling point in and of itself. And so I have to wonder how many times that phrase came up while eBay was in the process of acquiring ViA-Online GmbH, a German auction management software company.
ViA-Online GmbH probably wasn’t the main point of the buy, however; instead, the site and services known as “Afterbuy” are believed to have been the target. ViA-Online GmbH owns Afterbuy, and as The Motley Fool reports, professional eBay users in Germany are quite fond of it.
But in a result that’s typical of German engineering, there’s not a lot of racket. Actually, there’s not much official noise at all. eBay isn’t disclosing how much it paid or many other details related to the deal, and as for ViA-Online GmbH, well . . . the majority of its site is in German, so that’s no help at all.
It’s a good bet that eBay will try to increase Afterbuy’s foothold in Germany, though, and we may see it expand into other parts of Europe or the States, as well.
In related news, this development came almost immediately after eBay shut out a company called Jajah. Our own David Utter has the details, but eBay showed a striking lack of ability to play with others.
For the sake of eBay and ViA-Online GmbH, let’s hope this new union goes a little smoother.
