Online auction site Carnaby purchased GrabABargain, a fixed-price marketplace similar to eBay's Half.com site. GrabABargain boasts 3.5 million items listed for sale and site enables people to buy and sell new and used books, music, movies, and video games at up to 80 to 90% off regular retail prices.

Carnaby was founded in 1998 by Rick Antunes and Piyush Patel. Colleen Holuk, a spokesperson for Carnaby, declined to release the current number of registered users at the site. GrabABargain launched in 2001 and was founded by Mark Steffek and Rick Antunes' son, Peter Antunes.

Although the two companies are located near each other, Holuk said that they did not share employees or technology resources prior to the acquisition. There will be no layoffs, she said, and the companies are looking at "explosive internal growth phase in the near future, specifically in the customer service area, as we feel that is incredibly important in this industry."

Like eBay and Half.com, the two sites will remain separate, with certain aspects integrated. There will be a joint registration and a universal login feature on both sites, and they will cross-promote the sites.

"We expect that the acquisition of GrabABargain will add significantly to our earnings in 2002," said Rick Antunes, Chairman & CEO of Carnaby. "We feel that with this acquisition we have turned the online auction market into a two horse race," referring to eBay and Carnaby.

Carnaby said it will kick off a marketing campaign over the next few days with a $1 million lotto incentive program that will reward buyers and sellers at both sites for their loyalty. http://www.carnaby.com

http://www.grababargain.com