Yahoo! hands down under auctions to eBay

NEWS Yahoo! will close its Australian online auction business, Sold.com.au, later this month in a move that will leave the market open to just the one dominant player - eBay. Yahoo! announced the closure on the Sold.com.au page. The announcement read: "We would like to thank you for using Sold.com.au and we hope you have enjoyed the experience. We recommend that in the future, our customers try out the great service offered by eBay, our preferred auction service." Not that they have much choice. According to a statement, no jobs will be lost as a result of the closing: "All of Sold.com.au's staff and resources will be redeployed toward key growth areas in the company." Yahoo! Australia & NZ bought Sold.com.au from Australia-based F2, the Fairfax Interactive Network, for $15.63m in early 2001, but the business failed to make an effect in the massive online-auctions market. Sold.com.au's demise may give Yahoo!'s revenue a lift though - eBay has just signed an advertising deal with the dot-com giant for an undisclosed amount. The auction site's end comes less than a week after the demise of the Monster.com.au jobs website, which was losing around $3.91m per year before the plug was pulled. A Nielsen/NetRatings report for June showed the number of unique visitors to Sold.com.au remained stagnant at around the 240,000 mark, while eBay numbers managed to grow to 1.3 million. Staff, ZDNet Australia