EBay falls for StumbleUpon in US$75M deal

By Matt Chapman on May 11, 2007 2:21 PM
Filed under Software

Two companies reported to be in negotiations.

Auction website eBay is reported to be in talks to buy social networking recommendation site StumbleUpon for US$75 million.

Both companies have refused to comment on the speculation, but talks are thought to be nearing a critical stage.

A decision is expected within the next few weeks, according to reports on Reuters.

StumbleUpon uses recommendations from its 2.3 million users to match websites, videos and photos to a user's interests.

Users can cast their votes using a browser toolbar, giving sites the thumbs up or thumbs down.

"StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations," the website claims.

EBay has made a number of high-profile acquisitions in its history, including the US$1.5 billion buyout of PayPal in July 2002 and the US$2.6 billion deal for Skype in September 2005.