CRAIGSLIST / On the record: Craig Newmark - SFGate.com

Here is a snippet from the article on the background history of Craig Newmark, creator of the 'let's get right to the point' free classifieds/posting site known as Craigslist:

Back in 1994, Craig Newmark was working a computer security job at Charles Schwab and looking for ways to improve his social life. He started an e-mail list among his friends and sent out messages about events and happenings in and around San Francisco. His friends loved it, word spread and Newmark's little list grew by leaps and bounds. People started calling it Craigslist, and a phenomenon was born.

A decade later, Newmark stands at the helm of an Internet firm of astonishing proportions. Craigslist sites, found at www.craigslist.com, serve 45 cities across the United States, Canada and even England, attracting 5 million unique visitors every month.

Although the company has been fiercely independent to date, Newmark finds himself at a crossroads. On Friday, he said EBay bought 25 percent of his company from a former Craigs-list employee who had independently sold the shares to the San Jose auction firm. We caught up with Craig Friday to ask him about this latest development.

The whole article is here.

(via /.)