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eBay announced its acquisition of StumbleUpon, a young company that enables people to discover serendipitously “discover” websites of interest to them.

The $75 million acquisition earns eBay exposure to a community of 2.3 million users, drawn mainly to the site-stumbling service by word-of-mouth.

StumbleUpon has grown 150 percent year over year since its inception in 2001, providing about five million new site recommendations, based on individual preferences and community feedback, per day. It also allows its user base to rate content, thereby improving suggestions over time.

Senior Director Michael Buhr of eBay was selected to become StumbleUpon’s general manager. The site’s management team is not otherwise expected to change.

Source:- Marketingvox

News just keeps coming in… The internet industry is getting really hot with acquisitons… Most of the acquisitions are seen as desperate atempts to shift balance of power. Here is list of major ad network acquisition

1. Google acquired doubleclick for a whopping $3.1 billion . 13th april 2007

Microsoft was reportedly in a bidding war with Google for the company. Google gets access to DoubleClick’s advertising software and, perhaps more importantly, their customers and network.

DoubleClick was founded in 1996. DoubleClick was taken private in 2005 by Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity for $1.1 billion. The New York Times is reporting that DoubleClicks revenues are about $300 million/year.

10x revenue for a mature company is a…healthy…valuation. At least part of the acquisition price appears to be due to a desire by Google to keep this asset out of Microsoft’s hands. (source itvibe.com).

2.Yahoo acquires ad firm Right media for $680 million .April 30, 2007

This $680 million purchase of the remaining assets points to Yahoo’s desire to compete directly with the DoubleClick-powered Google. In some ways, this new deal is to calm the feeling of losing out on the DoubleClick deal to google.

3. WPP Acquires 24/7 Real Media for 649 Million Dollars. 17th May 2007

24/7 Real Media, which sells search marketing services and delivers ads to a network of Web sites was acquired by WPP which also owns JWT, O&M and Contract in India.

4.Microsoft buying online ad firm AQuantive for $6 billion 19th May 2007

Microsoft said it was buying online ad firm AQuantive for $6 billion, an 85 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price at nasdaq. The deal is expected to finalize in Q1 of 2008.

Now it seems attention will turn to ValueClick Inc. — which runs an online advertising network along the lines of 24/7 Real Media — is now one of the last publicly traded companies of scale in the sector., although it’s not clear that there’s anyone left to buy it out I hope rediff or some indian company does, or perhaps, a traditional advertising firm looking to expand its internet business. These acquisitons signal an all out war for getting hold of the lucrative online ad market which is a $60 billion opportunity with a 20% annual growth rate according to Yahoo! India MD George Zacharias.

Aquantive profit last financial year was $54 million. But considering the last traded price on nasdaq microsoft paid 85% more. To get a larger pie of the ad market. Internet giants went overboard to aqcuire the major players in the ad industry. Now lets wait for a few days more for the acquistion of valueclick by some indian company.