Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17229 Location: Texas

Before he started living the techno-bohemian good life in San Francisco, Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster tried the low-rent, low-tech version as a medical school dropout in Ann Arbor, Michigan. To save money one winter, he and his housemates shut down the heater and bundled up.
Today, Buckmaster still doesn't own a car, but business analysts say he and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark could ride their own Gulfstream, if only they wanted. Craigslist, the popular online compendium of mostly free classified ads, has made them wealthy. But analysts say they are just scratching surface of a gold mine - not that they seem to care.

"At investment conferences, people keep asking. . . how are you going to make lots of money?" Newmark told television interviewer Charlie Rose last year. "And we say, 'Hey, not interested.' Because once you are living well, and maybe providing for your future, what's the point in more?"

Newmark's remarks are cited in the lawsuit eBay filed recently against Craigslist, accusing Newmark and Buckmaster of clandestine self-dealing that diluted eBay's minority stake in the privately held company and denied it a rightful seat on Craigslist's board. EBay pointedly cited another comment by Newmark: "We don't owe our investors anything."

more.. link to news article

justjewels · Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 55

OK, this is the modern day David V Goliath story. If you have a heart and passion for the boycotts, this story will interest you as well. And, this story is going to take some time to play out in the courts.

Below is the start of the article. Click the link below to find the whole article.

Dear Reader,

I hope you find blessings every day!

With sincere hope,

JJ

http://www.slate.com/id/2191425/entry/0/

n 1995, Craig Newmark started Craigslist.org, the popular classified-advertising Web site, as a hobby. Newmark declined to charge money for the service, hewing instead to a philosophy of "giving each other a break." The site followed a low-growth, community-focused model that encouraged posters to buy and sell wares and to publicize events in their neighborhood.

That same year, Pierre Omidyar, whose core values were "People are basically good, everyone has something to contribute, and an open environment brings out the best in people," created the online auction site that became eBay, also as a hobby. With users buying products from all over the world, eBay became a public company within three years. Omidyar is now among the richest people in the world. The fast-growing eBay now has more than 14,000 employees and owns Paypal and Skype.

Craigslist is equally popular (it boasts 10 billion monthly page views), but Newmark has kept his company largely private. In 13 years he has distributed stock exactly twice. He gave away roughly one-quarter of the company shares to an early collaborator (identified in news reports as Phillip Knowlton) and later granted another minority portion to CEO Jim Buckmaster, who runs the 25-employee company.
http://www.slate.com/id/2191425/entry/0/