eBay to acquire StumbleUpon, Google launches direct competitor
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StumbleUpon had been rumored to be in acquisition discussions since quite a while. Recently talks had heated up again, with Google, AOL and eBay as potential suitors. A source
with knowledge of the deal now says the company has signed a term sheet with eBay to be acquired. The price is somewhere between $40 - $50 million.
What is StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon is a web browser plugin that allows its users to discover and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles.
StumbleUpon has become quite popular in India too. (Alexa rank 210 here and India ranks as #4 in terms of users of StumbleUpon)
On the same day that the news breaks that eBay is acquiring StumbleUpon for $40ish million, Google announces that they are building strikingly similar functionality into their Toolbar.
There is a dice icon now included in the Google Toolbar. On clicking it you will be taken to a new page that Google thinks you’ll be interested in based on your previous search queries.![]()
While this might not be the exact copy of StumbleUpon’s functionality, the end result is pretty much the same – helping you discover new and interesting websites based on your interests.
Om Malik @ GigaOM says this is Google lashing out at StumbleUpon and eBay because they lost the deal.
One can’t help but agree.
Credit: TechCrunch, GigaOM
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