In the last article I talked about an article that called Yahoo "smart" when it comes to acquiring other businesses.  I don't agree and think Yahoo's acquisitions over the past 18 months have pretty much been worthless.  But it got me thinking:  who is "smart" at the acquiring of businesses?  Another story I was going to cover today answered the question for me.

If you want to look at a company that is smart when it comes to acquiring other businesses, look at eBay.

As Internet Retailer points out, eBay recently announced it's intended acquisition of another company:  StubHub.  StubHub is the eBay of event tickets online.  Users can post tickets that they have and what they want for them and the service lets people search them out and buy them.  I think it's a brilliant strategy on eBay's part.  They already have an existing category for "Tickets"… but this acquisition could put eBay in the position of dominating online ticketing reselling.

But let's look at some other eBay acquisitions.  I think eBay is one of the silent, often-ignored predators of the business world.  They've made some of the best business purchases ever… business purchases that actually make sense and benefit the company overall.  But you don't often hear about their acquisition strategy.

The purchase of PayPal should be on a top list of corporate acquisitions somewhere.  It was another brilliant move by eBay and it has put them in near total control of their corner of the market.  And the integration of PayPal into the existing eBay system was not only simple, but also just seems to fit.  It really makes sense, both from a business perspective and from the perspective of the customer.  Seriously stop and think about it.  Could it make more sense for eBay to own PayPal?

Half.com is a good example of the strategy that Yahoo should take with it's acquisitions.  It's well integrated, but remains separate.  And, like PayPal, fits well with eBay's overall business.  eBay also owns half of Craigslist.  Is that a marriage made in heaven or what?

And what about Shopping.com?  Shopping.com has the potential to be a huge cash cow for eBay.  And if they integrate Shopping.com into eBay.com like I think they will, it will pay off in a big way.  Every time someone clicks the "Buy" button at Shopping.com, eBay makes money from the merchant selling the product.  If eBay integrates Shopping.com to display results under its existing auction results, it could be huge!  Imagine the potential of having new and used merchandise listed side-by-side at eBay.  Want to buy something new?  Go to eBay.  Want to buy something used?  Go to eBay?  Want to buy something, period?  Go to eBay.

Granted, Skype didn't make much sense for eBay to purchase.  I'm not sure what they were thinking when they bought it.  If I had to guess, I'd guess that they got pulled into the classic corporate bidding war.  Several other companies wanted Skype.  eBay saw all the hub-bub and decided they needed to get involved.  Unfortunately, they paid too much for a service that doesn't mesh well with their other businesses.  Skype is the tarnish on an otherwise excellent record of corporate acquisition.

I'd say the one thing eBay is missing is a shipping center of some kind.  eBay dropped the ball when it let FedEx and UPS snatch up Kinkos and Mailboxes Etc.  eBay should have purchased one of them (Kinkos specifically) and made it into the "Official eBay Shipping Center".  They could even create a service that would allow people to drop things off at "The eBay Store" that they wanted to sell online.  For a much larger fee than it currently charges, eBay could then ship all of the stuff people wanted to sell to a place like Kansas (where wages are low) for photographing, descriptions, and ultimate listing on eBay.  Many other have tried something similar.  If anyone could make it succeed, it'd be eBay.  But without a shipping center like Kinkos or Mailboxes Etc, that vision is pretty much shot.

So if you want to look at a company from which to learn about acquisition, don't look at Yahoo.  Look at eBay.  They've made some of the best purchases in corporate history.  And I, for one, can't wait to see where they go next!