eBay flotation goes down a storm

NEWS Leading online auctioneer, eBay, took the stock market by storm this week, despite recent publicity about security holes in other online auction sites. eBay expected its initial public offering to raise between $14 and $16 per share when it floated on the Dow Jones exchange on Wednesday. But the market yesterday priced eBay stocks at nearly $48 each - valuing the entire company at around $168m. This was despite a strong downward trend on most Dow Jones stocks. As reported yesterday on Silicon.com, Mark Dodd of online information centre, AuctionWatch, found breaches of user privacy in almost half the online auctioneers he reviewed. However, Dodd said these were all small and medium sized sites, and that eBay was not affected.