How is it possible someone shut down my IE via ebay?

I was bidding on an item via ebay. And like everyone i waited til there was 5 min left and started the countdown hoping to get that last second bid in and win. Well at exactly 2 min my IE stopped working. Couldnt use it at all. Everything else worked great. And at exactly 2 min and 1 sec (After the auction ended) i was able to use my IE again. Coincidence. Heck no. How is this possible. This is complete crap.