I think many of the larger sellers that grew up on eBay and CA or Marketworks have been looking for alternatives. I know of several large sellers who have built their own systems. When you are in a low-margin business like Media that 2% could make the difference between profitability and failure.

CA was certainly beating Marketworks in the international markets and that may have been the reason for the sale. Their growth in the US was slowing and they couldn’t make enough in-roads internationally.

Where CA sees the growth is in introducing these new customers (Marketworks) to their other services like SearchAdvisor and ShoppingAdvisor

Thanks for covering the story. We plan on keeping the MW platform. As you point out, customers are ‘telling us’ that there’s a need for a robust £20K side of things with Merchant. Thus we see this as a great way to provide a “cradle to adult’ solution for sellers that are ramping their business and want a clear path to further growth on and OFF eBay.

Scot