Startup Chatter by Donna Bogatin

The news is that there is no news. I saw Meg at a conference a few weeks ago, we said we needed to chat, but we never even managed to connect.

And why should Newmark have made an effort to do so? After all, it is the mega public corporation craigslist competitor eBay that maneuvered its way into the closely held, private “community” craigslist shareholder fold.

Contrary to conventional (not so) blogosphere wisdom, it is NOT eBay that has now “finally lost its cool,” but craigslist that continues to increasingly flex its powerful “do-gooder” muscle.

The publicly released details are sketchy, but minority shareholder eBay has filed suit against craigslsist, alleging majority shareholders Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster acted in their own best interests, which, not surprisingly, do not correspond to the best interests off unwanted shareholder eBay.

At a real estate conference in New York City years ago, I heard Newmark express his regret at not having had the foresight to adequately safeguard his craigslist shareholder interests from the very beginnings. “Hire a good lawyer,” he advised prospective startups.

eBay was never a welcome financial participant in the craiglsist empire. Meg Whitman shrewdly played hardball to get a seat at the craigslist classifieds table she wishes eBay had been able to build for itself.

Now, the eBay-induced battle against Craig Newmark appears to be the result of craigslist perhaps finally playing some shareholder hardball of its own.

YOU GO CRAIG!

ALSO: Who doesn’t want to create the next craigslist? Craig Newmark offers advice, here at StartupAlpha.com:   “Craig Newmark to Startups: ‘Be Impatient’!

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