Auction giant eBay will buy comparison-shopping site Shopping.com for $620 million in cash, the companies announced late Wednesday.

The acquisition "will allow us to provide even more opportunities for our sellers," Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, said in a statement. "Shopping.com's comparison technology simplifies the online shopping experience, and the Epinions community of reviewers is a great match with our own."

Shopping.com runs online comparison shopping in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The Brisbane, Calif.-based company tallies approximately 50 million unique visitors a month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Lorrie Norrington, president and CEO of Shopping.com, also talked up customer benefits of the deal.

"eBay will provide our shoppers greater convenience and comprehensiveness and will help our merchants increase sales," Norrington said in a statement.

The purchase, which requires the approval of shareholders and regulators, is expected to close during the third quarter. The purchase price works out to $21 for each Shopping.com share.

Wait and See...
As usual, many eBay Store owners were somewhat skeptical of this latest move. But one user on eBay's community bulletin board, Chunk Punky, who runs a gifts and crafts store on eBay, said Thursday, "It might have potential, depending on what eBay does with it. It's stores-based so what if all our stores were put on it? Could be more exposure — I do get hits from the site. But it remains to be seen what eBay will do with it and whether it'll stay a separate site or just be rolled in here...and if there are any fees for any inclusion into the site."

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay hasn't been shy about spending its war chest of cash when it sees an opportunity to expand its sales channel or diversify its listings.

For example, earlier this year it closed the $415 million cash purchase of Rent.com, an online service for the apartment and rental housing industry. It also paid an undisclosed amount of cash for Kurant, a vendor of online shopping technology and services; the key technology was StoreSense. In that deal, eBay gained Kurant's customers as well as its employees.

This article originally appeared on InternetNews.com. Devin Comiskey contributed to this article.