eBay sells StumbleUpon to founders

The struggling e-commerce giant eBay Inc. sold StumbleUpon on Monday, and StumbleUpon's founders confirmed they bought back the company, media reports said Tuesday.

eBay Inc, which acquired the fast-growing company in May 2007 for 75 million dollars under the tenure of eBay's former Chief Executive Meg Whitman, didn't disclose how much it sold StumbleUpon for.

The social networking site's founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, confirmed they bought back the company with a group of investors, including Accel Partners and August Capital.

Founded in 2001, StumbleUpon, which now has more than 7.4 million users, is a recommendation service using a downloadable toolbar to help Internet users discover and share content online.

The sale of StumbleUpon came just weeks after eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe told analysts that he would not "force synergies where they don't exist."

eBay recently said it would focus on bolstering its PayPal online payments business and focus on driving growth across its various e-commerce platforms.

Donahoe also acknowledged there are few synergies between eBay and Skype, which the company bought for 2.6 billion dollars in 2005.

A spokesman declined to comment on speculation that eBay might sell Skype back to its founders.