Check out how testy the battle between eBay and Craigslist is getting.

The online auctioneer and the online classified ads service are locked in an acrimonious courtroom battle in Delaware this week that would put the nastiest celebrity divorce cases to shame. The court has heard several days worth of  accusations of betrayal and examples of cultures clashing.

Here are the basics: eBay took a 28.4 percent share in Craigslist earlier this decade to get a foothold in online ads, but Craigslist sought to dilute eBay’s share to below 25 percent, thus costing it a board seat, after it learned eBay was launching its own service.

EBay is suing Craigslist in Delaware to have its original stake reinstated, while Craigslist has sued eBay in San Francisco, accusing it of not being forthright in its intentions to its betrothed.

Taking the stand on Thursday, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark compared himself to a cheated, betrayed spouse, mocking eBay executives for thinking he could be swayed by lavish dinners at top San Francisco restaurants. He also took specific aim at former eBay CEO and aspiring California governor Meg Whitman. “You thought you were dating, and they show up with someone else,” he told the court.

In turn eBay execs mocked Craigslist execs’ trouble mastering PowerPoint presentations.

Stay tuned for more courtroom drama and recriminations on Friday, when Newmark gets cross-examined and current eBay CEO Jim Buckmaster takes the stand.

Also in the basket:

 - Strong U.S. retails sales in November boost recovery hopes;
- P&G to buy Sara Lee’s air care business.

(PHOTO: Reuters)

Highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking scorecard:

·  AUTOMOTIVE STAKES TOTAL $11.2 BILLION
Powered by Germany’s Volkswagen AG, the volume of minority stake purchases in automotive manufacturers totals $11.2 billion for year-to-date 2009, the biggest year on record.
In this week’s biggest deal, Volkswagen secured a 19.9% stake in Japanese automobile maker, Suzuki Motor Corp, valued at $2.5 billion.  Volkswagen’s 49.9% stake in German rival, Porsche was valued at $5.8 billion and completed on December 7th.  Year-to-date, worldwide M&A activity in the industrials sector totals $244.3 billion, a 9% increase over last year at this time.

·  US REAL ESTATE M&A DOWN 60% OVER 2008
Simon Property Group’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Baltimore-based Prime Outlets Acquisition Co LLC, an owner and operator of shopping centers, ranks as the biggest US-based real estate transaction since Boston Properties Inc acquired New York’s General Motors Building and other properties from Macklowe Properties for $3.9 billion in May 2008.
US real estate mergers and acquisitions, which account for just 2% of overall US M&A, total $12.5 billion for year-to-date 2009, a 60% decline from 2008.

·  LENDING IN SPAIN MORE THAN DOUBLES
Spain’s Urbaser SA, a waste management company, closed a $1.1 billion term loan from a syndicate of banks this week, brining the volume of syndicated lending in Spain to $66.2 billion, more than double last year’s total.
Borrowers in the energy & power and industrials sectors comprise 83% of overall syndicated loans in Spain this year, with multi-billion dollar borrowings from utilities such as Gas Natural ($29 billion) and Iberdrola SA ($6.8 billion) and infrastructure concern Grupo Ferrovial SA ($4.6 billion).

Friday’s highlights:

Bonus watch: Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to pay top managers their 2009 bonuses in stock, rather than cash, as it seeks to deflect outrage over a near-record pay haul months after it repaid billions of dollars in taxpayer aid.

UK fund manager Gartmore has lowered price guidance on its initial public offer (IPO) and restructured the deal after investors balked at the valuation, a banking source close to the sale says.

Swedish private equity firm EQT says it, together with the Singapore government, will buy scientific journal publisher Springer Science and Business Media for an undisclosed sum. EQT’s purchase of Springer, from rivals Candover and Cinven, was first reported by Reuters on Wednesday. (See some of the articles Springer has published by Nobel Prize winners here.)

French bank Societe Generale says it is close to reaching a definitive deal with rival Dexia over buying Dexia’s 20 percent stake in Credit du Nord to give SocGen full control.

Oracle Corp’s customers tell concerned European Union regulators the U.S. software company’s $7 billion deal to buy Sun Microsystems Inc will not curtail competition in the database market.

For more on these stories, and the rest of the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

And elsewhere (some external links may require subscriptions):

British Airways PLC has decided to keep full ownership of its OpenSkies subsidiary after seeking outside investors, as the industry continues to show interest in value-oriented airlines amid the economic downturn, the WSJ says.

Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which have long thrived without treading on one another’s turf, are vying to acquire some of the same Silicon Valley start-ups and developing products that put themselves in more direct competition, the WSJ says.

The FT says the median private equity buy-out deal has shrunk by 85 per cent in the credit crunch, according to research from one of Europe’s biggest investors. See the Partners Group study, first published in late November, here.