EBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), one of the largest e-commerce retailers worldwide acquired Decide.com, a price forecasting start-up.
Offices of eBay to be moved
In a blog post, Mike Fridgen, chief executive officer of Decide.com confirmed the acquisition, but did not provide details of the transaction. Decide’s team will move to the new Seattle-area offices of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) except Orin Etzioni, co-founder and chief technology officer of the company, because he will be leading the Artificial Intelligence Institute supported by Paul Allen.
“Over the past year, we began experimenting with eBay and discovered an exciting opportunity to apply our team’s strength in data and predictive analytics to help over 25 million eBay sellers make smarter decisions and be more successful… We will continue to bring you the same innovative products and thinking as part of the eBay family,” wrote Fridgen.
Mobile apps shut down
The mobile apps, services and mobiles apps of Decide will shut down by the end of Septembers. The company said it is paying all price guarantees for past purchases, and it is no longer taking any price guarantees on future purchases. Its current paying members will receive a reimbursement for their subscription and the company will send a notice for details.
The startup helps consumers decide when to purchase a particular product providing unbiased advice using its patent-pending machine learning and text mining algorithms on billions of price points across millions of products, blog post and articles available on the internet.
Funding from venture capital firms
Established in 2011, Decide raised a total of $17 million funding from venture capital firms such as Vulcan Capital, Maveron, and Madrona Venture Group.
Meanwhile, PayPal, the online payment service of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) introduced a new version of its mobile payment app available on iPhones and Android devices. According technology industry observers, the new PayPal mobile app is the most complete mobile payment app available today. The mobile app allows users to store their credit card information, send and receive money, make purchases in stores that accept PayPal, find local deals, and open a credit line.
In July, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) expanded its same day delivery service known as eBay Now Service to increase its competitiveness against e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). eBay initially offered its same day delivery service in Manhattan, San Jose and San Francisco.
