They bought the stake for $12 - 15m in 2004 when CraigsList sales were estimated at $7m/yr (1)

Today CL's sales are estimated to be ~$335m and doubled year-over-year (2)

(1) http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/EBay-buys-25-stake-in...

(2) http://www.wsj.com/articles/ebay-sells-craigslist-stake-back...

Craigslist has no advertising on their site and doesn't charge for listings except for a few small sections of the site in major metropolitan areas (the funds from which they use for their business expenses). I think it speaks to the state of the bubble we're in that one of the "blue chip" internet companies has a business model of "be an ultra-speculative investment as long as possible." Of course Amazon too, but I'd say Craigslist is a more extreme example.

This is coming from personal experience so take it with a grain of salt:

Craigslist is an insanely valuable source for lead generation in recruiting, and car sales.

I run a recruiting company and craigslist is the best source of applicants by volume and return on investment (cost ($) per applicant).

Having observed them closely, they are not ignorant to this fact.

When specific cities or sections grow more popular they begin charging fees.

Their biggest boon has been a recent change to charge car dealerships 5$ per post. Car dealers pay because only months earlier they were paying for black hat solutions to post for 1-2$ per post.

FWIW, if you ever watched hot girls wanted (a documentary film) you will learn that a lot of "porn stars" were recruited via craiglist. It was a very interesting documentary to see how many people would actually use craiglist to find opportunity.

Interesting - what candidates do you recruit using Craigslist?

We recruted an MIT graduate for a programming position via CL.

Honestly, I'm not interested in working for a place that doesn't use craigslist.

There was analysis recently of the 'on demand' players craigslist lead gen spend.

https://tryzen99.com/blog_posts/on-demand-is-in-demand

I was recruited to my first sysadmin/devops/etc. position through craigslist; similarly I encouraged a family member who quickly found a construction engineering position.

Sales positions. car sales, insurance sales, real estate sales.

chemists, sales persons, security, pilots... ;)

How can you say that in response to a comment saying that Craigslist made $335 MILLION and doubled revenue year over year? I mean sure perhaps dispute the underlying facts (they seem rock solid to me) but if making $335,000,000 in revenue is somehow the sign of a bubble then... i don't know what to say.

One is running ecommerce the other is running local commerce.

>except for a few small sections of the site in major metropolitan areas

Yeah... the most lucrative 20% of the volume...

Along those lines - when/if are they are they required to disclose it as a publicly-traded company?

I believe they are only required to disclose financials of it in their next quarterly update if the transaction has a "material" impact on the business. Which is open to a lot of interpretation but generally has come to mean that the information would have an impact on whether the average shareholder would buy or sell the stock.

This is why you see Apple buy dozens of companies quietly without disclosure all the time. Because most purchases would not really change whether the average person invests, if for no other reason than the sheer size of Apple.