An article running right now in Business Insider lays out the news that eBay has acquired Milo.com for $75 million and cites two anonymous sources,

Milo.com is a shopping search engine that lets you find out what’s in stock at local stores.

How does Milo fit with eBay?

For starters, it plays in the same sandbox as Groupon, which Google is about to buy for $6 billion.

Anything that allows small retailers to market online without having to build a Web site or make any cash outlays is hot in e-commerce these days.

There’s also some possible synergy with eBay’s Red Laser mobile app, which allows people to take pictures of bar codes and get price comparisons.

Indeed, Google does seem to be eyeing Groupon with hungry eyes, to the tune of a possible $6 billion.

Milo.com dovetails nicely with eBay’s mission because it specializes in tracking inventory in local stores, that tied with e-commerce allows local niche brick and mortar stores to show local consumers where they could get what they want right now. It also combines nicely with the eBay e-store model, which would allow the stores to combine their in-house inventory with the eBay inventory tracking.

With e-commerce on the rise—as seen with the recent Cyber Monday—small, local retailers could benefit hugely from a powerhouse like eBay running their Internet shop fronts. Already a lot of niche markets, like comic book shops and novelty collectors use eBay to keep their businesses afloat during lean months when regular customers don’t come in from the streets as often.