eBay Paying Protection Money to AOL

from the new-business-models dept

Businessweek has a very good article about eBay's latest deal with AOL. I had made fun of it at the time, because it seemed silly. eBay paid $75 million to AOL to create a co-branded auction site - as if AOL users couldn't find eBay on their own. This article suggests that the money was really "protection" money to keep AOL out of the business of creating their own auction site. The article then goes on to discuss why this was a bad move. Definitely worth the read.