eBay has acquired ViA-Online GmbH, a leading auction management software company in Germany that operates Afterbuy.com.

The acquisition enables eBay to expand service and support for its German sellers, while allowing Afterbuy to grow its business with the e-commerce expertise and resources of eBay. Afterbuy will continue to operate under its current brand name and will remain in Krefeld, Germany.

eBay does not have a recent history of acquiring auction management software companies, instead it has focused on its third-party developer program and in-house tools. Acquisitions have been in peripheral software companies such as Skype and ProStores.

One blogger has speculated that the Afterbuy.com acquisition signals a new eBay strategy to earn more revenue per transaction by owning the listing and auction management process.