Why did Google really pull out of its deal with Yahoo? Because they got a tip that the company had just hours until the Department of Justice was set to file an anti-trust lawsuit to block the deal. This according to Sanford Litvack, the lawyer the Department of Justice hired specifically to examine the deal.

Mascus, an online classified portal focused on used heavy machines and trucks, has signed deals to expand its presence in Europe and Africa.

South African free classified Web site MyToko has expanded to five new sites. And Private Property now offers home auctions.

Trader Classified Media will issued a “final liquidation distribution” to shareholders later this month and then go out of business.

It’s all still rumors but Alley Insider shares with readers what it’s hearing about a possible successor to Jerry Yang as CEO of Yahoo. 

A short but funny peek at the “frienemy” relationship between Craigslist and EBay, on FastCompany.com

Analyst Imran Kahn weighs in on the holiday shopping season. The not surprising answer: overall sales will be down. But online fares better. Plus Hitwise reports on the online winners on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. 

The billionaire investor bought 6.8 million shares for an average of $9.92 each in three batches last week.

A final, graphic look at Q3 data released Nov. 26 by the Newspaper Association of America: U.S. newspapers’ total advertising revenue (print and online) has been falling at an accelerating rate over the last four quarters.

A Yelp local reviews site clone called Qype has been growing aggressively in Europe and has designs on other continents including South America. Will the U.S. be next?

The German publishing house Axel Springer Verlag bought a 10 percent share in Dogan Yayin Holding, the largest Turkish media group in a deal worth €47 million.

Newspaper advertising revenues totaled $8.9 billion in the third quarter of 2008, down 18.1 percent from the same quarter last year, according to figures released Wednesday by the Newspaper Association of America.

This article is restricted to CI clients. Contact Us for more information.

Portuguese classified-ad print publisher Ocasião—part of Controlinveste S.A.— intends to launch three vertical-search sites by the end of the year, focused on cars, heavy machinery and luxury boats.

This article is restricted to CI clients. Contact Us for more information.

Online advertising growth is slowing and will dip into single-digit annual growth for the first time in 2009, according to eMarketer. Online classifieds have the poorest outlook: advertising revenue is projected to fall 5 percent over the next five years.

This article is restricted to CI clients. Contact Us for more information.

Three online classified advertising sites made it into ComScore Media Metrix’s Top 50 U.S. Web properties.

EBay Germany has a new CEO.

Rumors are that Facebook is searching for a partner to take over its classified listings application and that Oodle may have won the contract.

Stefan Gross-Selbeck, CEO of EBay in Germany for the past four years, will take over from Lars Hinrichs, the founder and current CEO of business network Xing, on 15 January next year.

U.K. Internet users are increasingly looking for second hand goods online, according to a new study by Hitwise. In the 12 months to October U.K. Internet searches for second hand goods have increased by 22 percent while classifieds Web sites have experienced a 47 percent increase in traffic over the same period.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $6 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2007.