The Lounge

Online auction giant eBay showed its teeth today by launching a suit against free online classified listings directory Craigslist. Despite being an unofficial "parent" of the site, thanks to its holding of 28% shares in Craigslist, eBay had no hesitation in hitting its smaller brother with a lawsuit, claiming that Craigslist had "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10%."

This claim stems from the belief that the founder of Craigslist Craig Newmark, as well as Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster and the other Directors on the Board, acted in a way that was counter-productive to eBay as a shareholder. What this is exactly is unknown at the moment, since details of the lawsuit have not been made public yet, and Craigslist has refused to comment on the action.

However, you can be sure that it must be something pretty serious, to make a company like eBay raise the suit in the first place, especially with the popularity of Craigslist itself. It'll be interesting to find out what the story behind this is when it all comes to light, particularly since Craigslist has been in the news only recently in another negative light, with the (successfully defended) case against it citing that the site violated anti-discrimination laws. Could be fun times ahead...