eBay acquires Magento for e-commerce tools

Online auction site eBay has purchased Magento, creators of the open-source e-commerce platform of the same name.

The Magento platform allows online merchants a feature-rich, open-source enterprise e-commerce product that offers users a high degree of flexibility and control over the content and functionality of their online store, eBay said in a statement on Monday.

"The feedback we've heard from external developers has been clear — they don't just want payments or an e-commerce site; they want access to a full set of commerce capabilities to build complete shopping experiences for merchants," John Donahoe, chief executive of eBay said.

Magento also offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of its platform, called Magento Go, which also provides smaller vendors with online e-tailing tools, such as payments and inventory management options.

A FAQ (PDF) page on the purchase reveals that eBay plans to integrate the Magento platform into its newly created X.commerce platform but will run it as a standalone product until it works out the best way to integrate it.

X.commerce is eBay's cloud-based, open-source e-commerce platform which aims to provide a one-stop-shop for online retailers, for example, by integrating shopping cart, payment services, inventory management, marketplace integration, search engine optimisation and tax guidance.

In 2010 eBay purchased a minority stake in Magento. Following the acquisition it will own all shares in the company and will retain Magento's approximately 290 employees. Financial terms of the deal — which is expected to close in Q3 2011 — were not disclosed.