San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. agreed late last week to sell its 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist Inc as part of a settlement to end litigation between the tech companies.  The stake was returned to Craigslist for an undisclosed sum, effectively ending years of legal battles between the two companies.  eBay trumpeted the move of selling the Craigslist stake, saying it fits in with the company's goal of refocusing its efforts on its core business.  The online marketplace is also currently trying to sell its eBay Enterprise division and is planning on spinning off its PayPal payments service during the third quarter.

eBay initially bought into Craigslist in 2004, spending no more than $34 million for the stake.  Craigslist began undertaking takeover defenses just a few months later, however, when eBay launched Kijiji, a rival online classified ads service.  Kijiji was later renamed eBay Classifieds, but Craigslist filed several lawsuits in California claiming that eBay had used proprietary information obtained during the negotiations in its own classifieds business.  Founded by former IBM'er Craig Newmark in 1995, Craigslist ranks eighth in US visitors according to online research firm Alexa, just one spot behind eBay.