Despite a tough equities market lately, E-Loan (NASDAQ:EELN) has been surging. Last October, the stock price hit a trough of about $2 per share. Now it's around $3.30.
The company got a huge boost in mid-December from Capital One's (NYSE:COF) $155 million purchase of eSmartloan. That deal got investors excited about the possibility of E-Loan getting purchased as well.
Then yesterday, E-Loan announced a sweet deal with eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY). Basically, eBay will leverage the E-Loan platform to provide consumers with financing on eBay Motors.
eBay Motors is the No. 1 auto site, with about $11.1 billion in gross merchandise volume. A vehicle is sold almost every minute. A big reason for the alliance is that eBay is simply selling an incredible number of autos, and wants to make buying easier so it can sell even more.
E-Loan's platform is scalable. Other benefits include generally lower rates than banks or credit unions, no vehicle inspections or appraisals, and closings as quick as 24 hours.
In the wake of the eSmartloan and eBay deals, E-Loan has probably danced into the minds of a few potential suitors. These could be from traditional ranks; companies, perhaps, like Citigroup (NYSE:C) or Bankof America (NYSE:BAC). Or E-Loan might also tempt Internet pure plays like Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO).
And there's another possibility: eBay, which has been on a spending spree lately, purchasing Rent.com, Marktplaats.nl, a minority position in Craigslist.com, and so on. But before selling out, E-Loan may want to cut a few more big deals to pump up its valuation even more.
Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares mentioned in this article.
