U.K.-based QXL.com yesterday bought Ricardo.de, a German consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer online auction service, for $1 billion in stock, creating Europe’s largest Internet auctioneer, according to reports.
The new operation will be called QXL Ricardo and will have 1.17 million registered users.
In addition to Germany, the company will operate in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. It also operates a business-to-business Web site only in Germany.
QXL operates online auction sites in nine languages across Europe.
