Judgment on January 6, 2009: There's no love lost between eBay and Craiglists, but eBay did not go hostile and takeover the online classified listings site by the end of 2008. The community got this right. -- The Industry Standard

Original prediction: There is a lot of developing merger and acquisition activity in 2008. It is no secret that eBay has taken a stake in the online site Craigslist. eBay may go hostile – due to the past and current conflicts with the dilution of eBay’s ownership in Craigslist.

"Craiglist later took steps to reduce eBay's stake. In December, 2007, and January, 2008, Craigslist changed its bylaws to dilute eBay's ownership to 24.85% (from around 28%), removing its right to appoint a Craigslist board member" (Businessweek).

With 10 Billion pages views per month – it’s a nice target for eBay. For now, Craigslist is not for sale – but as eBay increases its ownership – it is only a matter of time. A wager in favor of is: a bet that eBay will hold a majority stake (51%) in Craigslist by the end of 2008.

Editor's note: We're approving this prediction, which is especially intriguing in light of Craigslist's announcement today that it is countersuing eBay. Brad Stone has a nice piece on the situation which says quite appropriately "It's war, then." Hostile indeed! Will be interesting to see how this plays out.