Grant Gross
Senior Writer

eBay files governance lawsuit against Craigslist

news
Apr 22, 20082 mins

Company accuses Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, founder Craig Newmark of entering into transactions that have 'unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest in Craigslist'

eBay has filed a lawsuit alleging that some changes made by Craigslist’s board of directors have diluted eBay’s investment in the online classified site.

eBay filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, the company said. The complaint was filed under seal because some of the information about Craigslist is governed by confidentiality restrictions, eBay said.

eBay, which acquired a 28.4 percent interest in Craigslist in 2004, didn’t provide details about the actions taken by Craigslist’s board, but it said that Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark have entered into transactions that have “unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent.”

Buckmaster and Newmark have breached their fiduciary duties, eBay alleged. An eBay spokeswoman wasn’t immediately available for comment.

A Craigslist spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the company would likely issue a statement on its blog later in the day.

“The recent actions by the Craigslist directors have disadvantaged eBay and its investment in Craigslist,” Mike Jacobson, eBay senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. “Since negotiating our investment with Craigslist’s board in 2004, we have acted openly and in good faith as a minority shareholder, so we were surprised by these recent unilateral actions.”

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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