{"id":549212,"date":"2006-06-19T11:03:01","date_gmt":"2006-06-19T11:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/549212-ebay-cautious-on-web-mergers.html"},"modified":"2006-06-19T11:03:01","modified_gmt":"2006-06-19T11:03:01","slug":"ebay-cautious-on-web-mergers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/549212-ebay-cautious-on-web-mergers.html","title":{"rendered":"Ebay cautious on web mergers"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, online conglomerates operating under different brand names could eventually emerge, she said. <\/font><\/p>\n

Ms Whitman said Ebay, whose purchase of Skype was the biggest internet deal last year, would continue to look at acquisitions, though mainly of smaller technology companies. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I think multi-brand, full-service internet companies are an opportunity," she told the Financial Times. <\/font><\/p>\n

Ms Whitman’s comments come at a time of heightened speculation on Wall Street about the possibility of mergers between the internet giants. <\/font><\/p>\n

The rise of Google, along with Microsoft’s renewed efforts to become a more significant force online, has prompted all the big internet companies to reconsider their strategies. <\/font><\/p>\n

Ebay last month announced an alliance with Yahoo in the US, though at the time a senior executive said the two sides had not discussed deeper links than the ones agreed upon. <\/font><\/p>\n

The success of Yahoo Japan, that country’s dominant internet services company, points to the potential market power from combining portal, e-commerce, broadband and search activities, Ms Whitman said. <\/font><\/p>\n

"[However] I think that game has largely played out in most markets," she said. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I think it would be a very difficult challenge today to say that you want that integrated model in virtually any country because you’ve already got brands that stand for those things." <\/font><\/p>\n

Ebay has turned to a multi-branded strategy with its PayPal and Skype units already the largest payments and voice communications businesses on the internet. <\/font><\/p>\n

"We’re pretty focused now on sort of maximising the three business that we have," Ms Whitman said. <\/font><\/p>\n

Asked whether external factors, such as Microsoft’s ambition to become a bigger player online, could destabilise the existing industry structure and lead to mergers, she said: "It can, but I think in the near-term I see at least the major internet players kind of on their own path. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I think, you know, each of the big internet companies now are quite focused on a strategy that’s quite differentiated. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Yes, there are overlaps and competition, but I think each of these major internet companies feels quite strongly about where they’re headed." <\/font><\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mergers between big internet companies are unlikely in the short term because of difficulties combining brands, says Meg Whitman, Ebay chief executive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}