Craigslist spoke to Yahoo, Salon.com, the venture arm of Bertelsmann in addition to Google and Warburg Pincus about purchasing shares of stock from disgruntled stockholder Phillip Knowlton in 2004. Craigslist also talked to Mr. Knowlton about acquiring his shares directly. The company had also received an inquiry from Kleiner Perkins, but they were unwilling to sign an NDA.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster revealed the names of companies interested in Craigslist stock during his testimony in the eBay v Craigslist trial unfolding in Georgetown Delaware.

Mr. Buckmaster said he had a number of meetings with Google - somewhere between 5 - 10 meetings. Google was interested in purchasing Phillip Knowlton's shares, but it became apparent to them that Google only wanted to purchase 100 percent of the company.

The first meeting Mr. Buckmaster had with eBay was May 2004 with Garrett Price over beer and chicken wings. "Garrett was very cordial and complimentary. He knew the skeleton of the negotiations with Google and why they had broken off." Mr. Price said he knew people personally in the Google M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) department there.

"He (Mr. Price) said unlike Google, it was eBay's common practice to purchase minority stake and used Mercardo Libre" as an example.