Checkbook Please

Shopping.com has filed for their IPO. They earned $6.9 million on revenue of $67.2 million this past year. Yahoo should buy them fast before the price goes up after the IPO. Or they could do even better and buy BizRate which has broader services and appears to be a higher class operation. Better yet they could buy both, just to keep them both from Google.

These companies are the pure-shopping side of Overture. Every click is paid for, and there are LOTs of clicks. Plus they both have scads of user opinions, the once and next driving force of commerce. And it's a great fit with Yahoo Stores, where they earn from both store rent and as a percent of sales. This adds a revenue stream for the big boys who don't run YahooStores, and who already have to buy Overture ads to get into regular search listings. Top this off with moves like the new Yahoo! Autos and you start to see where this is all going.

Update: Two days after writing this entry, it was reported that Yahoo! purchased Kelkoo, the european equivalent of Epinions.

Update: A post at SearchBlog about Shopping.com and their Google relationship.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at March 24, 2004 11:19 PM