EBay Acquisition: WHERE Speaks at Where 2.0
You may have heard by now that eBay has acquired WHERE for an undisclosed sum — continuing an acquisition streak of companies that appear to triangulate a mobile local strategy (Milo, RedLaser, WHERE).
There is lots to talk about here and we’ll catch up with our good friend WHERE CEO Walt Doyle as soon as we can. For now, I’ll just relay comments that WHERE CIO Mok Oh shared just now at the opening of the Where 2.0 (no relation) conference in Santa Clara.
“We’re good at placing, consumer side and merchant side ads,” he said. “EBay can help us close that loop by tracking these ads through to transactions and payments.”
This is a key statement that brings in implications for synergies with Milo’s inventory data, RedLaser’s point of sale barcode scans, and perhaps more interesting, PayPal.
The major eBay asset that is PayPal is in fact where WHERE will be housed, and where there will be considerable potential for tying location-based ads to payments.
As we’ve argued, payments will be a boon for mobile users, and for advertisers and merchants to more effectively discern ROI on mobile presence/ads. There are lots of companies chasing this and PayPal is very much one of them.
“We’re moving forward like we always have been,” continued Oh. “We’ll see what happens and there still is a lot of work to be done. For now, my phone has been ringing off the hook all morning.”
Right on, Mok, and a huge congrats to Walt & team.
