EBay Buys Stake in TradeOut.com; Web Site Features Surplus Odds, Ends

Furniture World News

EBay Inc., which has persuaded millions of Americans to trade everything from Beanie Babies to high-school yearbooks online, now is betting that U.S. corporations are eager to sell their odds and ends over the Internet, too. In one of its first equity investments in another company, eBay is co-leading a $22 million venture-capital investment in TradeOut.com Inc., which runs an online marketplace for corporate surplus materials. EBay declined to say how big a stake it is buying. But it said its chief executive, Margaret Whitman, will join TradeOut's board. TradeOut (www.tradeout.com), based in Ardsley, N.Y., started operations in June and currently lists about $500 million of business equipment for sale. Items range from surplus office furniture to 10,000 pairs of orthopedic pantyhose.