E-Commerce Acquisitions in 2011

Nextag, the San Mateo-based shopping and product comparison website, acquired Thingbuzz, a Bay Area real-time social shopping platform, to integrate social media product conversations and reviews into Nextag's shopping experience. The acquisition is intended to add social shopping and real-time product discovery capabilities to Nextag's site; financial terms were not disclosed.

eBay Inc. completed its acquisition of GSI Commerce, purchasing all outstanding shares for $29.25 per share (approximately $2.4 billion) and making GSI a separate business unit. The deal included subsequent divestitures of GSI's licensed sports merchandise business and partial interests in ShopRunner and Rue La La to a holding company led by GSI founder Michael Rubin.

Oversee.net has acquired ShopWiki Corp., a New York–based shopping search engine, to serve as the anchor property for Oversee’s expanding Vertical Markets retail division. ShopWiki was majority-owned by growth equity firm Generation Partners; terms were not disclosed and ShopWiki CEO Rory Cumming will continue to run the property from New York as a wholly owned subsidiary of Oversee.