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eBay builds up machine-learning capabilities with SalesPredict acquisition

The acquisition of the Israel-based company should help eBay determine the variables that impact the prices of its listings.
Written by Stephanie Condon, Senior Writer

eBay announced Monday it's acquiring the Israel-based firm SalesPredict, which uses advanced analytics to predict consumer-buying behavior. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition is eBay's latest move to build up its machine-learning capabilities in order to clean up its vast product catalog. eBay has more than 900 million listings, and SalesPredict should help the company determine why those listings end up at a certain price.

"For our buyers, it will help us better understand the price differentiating attributes of our products, and, for our sellers, it will help us build out the predictive models that can define the probability of selling a given product, at a given price over time," explained Amit Menipaz, eBay's vice president and general manager of structured data.

The acquisition of SalesPredict follows eBay's announcement in May that it is buying the Swedish machine-learning startup Expertmaker. Once the acquisition is complete, SalesPredict CEO Yaron Zakai-Or will serve as a director of product management, technology. SalesPredict CTO Kira Radinsky will be director of data science and chief scientist for eBay Israel.

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