Founded in 2005 by former Excite execs, Oodle quickly became one of the largest aggregators and search engines for classifieds on the Web. After some bumps and hiccups along the way, the company began to focus more on the social side of classifieds, and today powers the Facebook Marketplace. This shift led Oodle to hit profitability and become cash flow positive last year, and today it’s topping that off by announcing that it is joining QVC.
Oodle CEO Craig Donato said in a blog post today that the team has been increasingly focused on social commerce, and that “no one does social shopping better than QVC.” In an accompanying announcement, QVC confirmed its acquisition of Oodle, saying that it will be acquiring all the assets of Oodle. The deal is expected to close by December 31st.
Oodle has raised some $23 million in outside funding to date and currently operates a network of online marketplaces on Facebook, iOS and Android that collectively have 15 million monthly unique users. The company has also partnered with corporations like AutoTrader to sell its social advertising product, Oodle Pro.
More TC coverage of Oodle here.
No word yet on the terms, but …
We’ve reached out to Oodle to learn more and will be updating.
via TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/05/qvc-acquires-social-classifieds-veteran-oodle-to-help-power-its-social-commerce-evolution/
