Entriq, a US company providing video publishing services to websites, landed a contract with a prominent client, namely global publisher John Wiley & Sons. The publisher John Wiley is best known for its range of “For Dummies” books. Read more here.

Entriq belongs to MIH, which is a subsidiary of LSE- and JSE-listed media group Naspers. When on the Entriq site, look at the client list – and be impressed.

In a press statement released by MIH Internet Europe yesterday, Christian Unger, CEO of MIH Internet Europe, said a British trade journal called ACQ Finance Magazine has singled out the acquisition of Tradus, operator of auction platforms in 13 European countries, by Naspers as the “Deal of the Year 2008″.

Tradus was renamed MIH Internet Europe after the deal. Naspers is a media group with HQ in Cape Town. 

Also look here for the press release (in German).

The Naspers share price dropped in the wake of the deal, on the widely reported view of analysts that Naspers had paid too much for Tradus.

(Unfortunately, I don’t know the magazine, ie. I don’t know how much standing and credibility it has in the market. I’ll put a few questions to it today, such as: What were the criteria; who were the others on the shortlist; is this for the internet only; did they take into account that analysts thought the price was too high).

I’ll report on the answers as soon as I got a response.)

Naspers’ big investment in Tradus (now MIH Internet Europe) in the first quarter of this year suddenly gave Naspersers an interest in what eBay was up to. Here are a few news items on eBay gathered from several sources in Europe. [Read on]

Officially, US-based auction platform eBay is on a special mission to extend its strong market position in western Europe into eastern Europe and Scandinavia. But, when one reads this article, one can’t help but wonder whether eBay was not, in fact, close to throwing in the towel in Poland. [Read on]

I came, I saw, I got rid of it.

The website of Tradus, the Swiss-based company bought by Naspers in March this year with auction platforms in 13 European countries, vanished from the airwaves recently. Internet users trying to access the Tradus portal, are redirected to Naspers.com, where the Tradus name is also “non-existent”.

[Read on]