EBay Signs Deal With Andale
(09/12/00, 9:01 p.m. ET) By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb News

Leading online auctioneer eBay Inc. has signed an exclusive agreement to incorporate on its site Andale Inc.'s software for counting the number of buyers who view a particular auction listing.

Financial terms of the deal were not released, but Andale CEO Munjal Shah said Tuesday that the auction counter, acquired in the merger between Andale and Honesty.com two months ago, would be available to merchants Sept. 25.

Merchants who chose to use the counter will have to check a box on the form they use to post their goods on eBay (stock: EBAY), San Jose, Calif.

For viewing counter results, merchants will be directed to an analytics page co-branded by eBay and Andale, Mountain View, Calif., Shah said.

"We will then have the opportunity to up sell those merchants, once they've tried out the counter service, to additional auction management services," Shah said.

Andale, which offers its services through an ASP model, charges merchants 3 percent of the gross on a sale. Besides developing its own auction services, eBay has been seeking help from third parties.

The auctioneer joined with Wells Fargo, San Francisco, earlier this year in offering an online person-to-person payment system, and plans to allow Internet Pictures Corp. (stock: IPIX), Oak Ridge, Tenn., to host auction images for sellers for free.