Web auction house eBay Inc has bought a three-month-old copycat German firm, alando.de, for an undisclosed sum, marking the US online auction pioneer’s first acquisition in Europe. The firm already has a UK site up and running. Despite the fact that alando only launched in March, it already has 50,000 registered users to add to eBay’s 3.8 million, but it will have its brand name absorbed into eBay shortly. eBay will find itself competing in Germany against UK firm Quixell Ltd, which operates as QXL.com and already has French and German language sites. eBay expects to take a one-time charge in connection with the acquisition and says the transaction will be dilutive for the remainder of the year. Further ventures into Europe are expected this year.
