Dive Brief:

• EBay has sold its 28.4% stake in classifieds-style marketplace Craigslist back to Craigslist, the company said Friday.

• Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but eBay says that it includes a dismissal of the ongoing court battles that the two have been quietly engaging in for years.

• EBay bought shares in Craigslist in 2004 for $32 million; five years later in court testimony then-eBay CEO Meg Whitman said the company would have liked to acquire Craigslist outright.

Dive Insight:

This deal finally ends a festering problem for eBay in time for its split from PayPal, which is imminent next month. Craigslist and eBay have locked horns in court for years, even after a ruling five years ago in which eBay lost its seat on Craigslist’s board. The litigation in part took up eBay’s establishment of a Craigslist-like site, dubbed Kijiji, which has seen some success in Canada but is nearly unheard of elsewhere.