EBay : Acquires Expertmaker

Today, eBay announced it has agreed to acquire Sweden-based Expertmaker, which specializes in providing intelligent solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data analytics. Expertmakerhas been a partner of eBay's since 2010, most recently helping with eBay's structured data initiative. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Upon the close of the transaction, Expertmaker'semployees will join eBay's structured data product and technology team. Expertmaker'sFounder and CEO, Lars Hard, will join as Director, Data Science reporting into Amit Menipaz's organization.

'As a part of eBay, Expertmaker'stechnology, expertise and talented engineers will play an important role in helping advance eBay's structured data initiative,' said Amit Menipaz, Vice President and General Manager of Structured Data at eBay. 'eBay's structured data effort is a multi-year journey, and we believe the innovation and significant expertise that Expertmakerbrings to eBay will help us build a best-in-class product catalog and in turn better serve our customers.'

'Expertmakeris excited to join the eBay team, bringing innovative artificial intelligence, machine learning and large-scale optimization technology to eBay's structured data initiative,' said Lars Hard, Founder and CEO of Expertmaker. 'In partnership with eBay, we will be able to transcend traditional machine learning approaches to create adaptive and learning solutions using the Expertmakerplatform.'

eBay remains focused on driving the best choice, the most relevance and the most powerful selling platform for its customers. One component of eBay's strategy to drive the most relevance is its shift to be more product-based. With this initiative, which eBay calls structured data, the company is organizing its vast inventory in order to better aggregate insights into supply and demand. This structured data foundation will allow eBay to build better user experiences and improve discoverability.

With over 900 million listings on eBay, there are three key efforts that comprise eBay's structured data initiative: collect the data; process and enrich the data; and create product experiences. Expertmaker will contribute to data processing and enrichment, specifically with respect to product attribute normalization.

Expertmakerwas founded in 2006 by Lars Hard. Prior to Expertmaker, Hard was involved in founding a variety of startups with a focus in advanced AI, machine learning, math and big data, including Lytics.ai and Dragonfire Research. Hard will continue to lead his team as a part of eBay and serve as a visiting lecturer at Lund University in Sweden.