Ebay buys PayPal 181
mdahlman was among several readers who submitted the story that
eBay has
bought Paypal in a deal worth $1.5B in stock. The article is mostly
numbers and money related stuff, but it also briefly mentions some of
the controversy surrounding eBay.
Re:controversy (Score:2, Informative)
PayPal is a tad controversial - it's got jaw-dropping Ts&Cs and it's not very friendly to people outside the US. Also, there are occasional foul-ups, and several states want much closer scrutiny - if PayPal.looks like a bank and it acts like a bank, then it should regulated like a bank.
In fact, the article doesn't mention any ebay controversy. Expect this comment to be modded down and the story silently edited...
Re:Maybe..... (Score:0, Informative)
More info... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bye Bye Billpoint (Score:2, Informative)
eBay is not the News-Wels Fargo is! (Score:3, Informative)
But look at who partnered with PayPal and invested in Paypal before the eBay transaction..
Wells Fargo..
PayPal is going to be pushed as the online pay site for all online transactions by Wells fargo..
eBay just wants to make sure they have a full handled on that leader..
Quite right (Score:0, Informative)
This has been your daily Slashdot dose of Completely Obscure Useless Crap. Thank you.
PayPal not Europe-friendly? (Score:2, Informative)
I'd be curious to get a sense about how you feel about PayPal and *your* country.
(fwiw, I care because I use it to sell my software [turnstyle.com], and I've got lots of international users)
From Dow Jones Business line (Score:1, Informative)
----
EBay to Buy Online Payment Firm PayPal for $1.51 Billion
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- EBay Inc. (EBAY) said it has agreed to acquire online payment company PayPal Inc. (PYPL) for about $1.51 billion in stock.
The online auctioneer also said Monday that second-quarter revenue came in above its own previous estimates, thanks to 48% growth in its U.S. business and even better growth in international operations, where business more than doubled.
EBay and PayPal already have a close association, with PayPal getting about 60% of its business from the eBay site. The rest of PayPal's business is with small merchants, who present a potential new audience for eBay. Likewise, eBay said, its 46 million users represent a growth opportunity for PayPal.
PayPal, based in Mountain View, Calif., will continue to operate as an independent brand after the transaction closes. PayPal serves businesses and consumers in the U.S. and 37 other countries, enabling users with e-mail capabilities to make payments to each other or to merchants via the Internet.
EBay said, however, it will phase out PayPal's gaming business because of what it described as an uncertain regulatory environment.
PayPal will still offer its Web Accept product, which allows independent online merchants to accept payment directly at their Web sites.
EBay plans to phase out its Billpoint unit after the transaction closes. Seeking to compete with PayPal, eBay in February paid about $43.5 million to acquire the roughly one-third stake in Billpoint it didn't already own from Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC).
EBay expects the PayPal deal to close around the end of 2002.
Under terms of the agreement announced Monday, eBay will swap 0.39 of its shares for each of PayPal's approximately 64 million shares outstanding. Based on eBay's price of $60.55 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at the close of trading Friday, the deal values each PayPal share at $23.61, an 18% premium to PayPal's Nasdaq-traded price of $20 on Friday.
EBay said the estimated $1.5 billion price tag includes about $18 million in acquisition costs.
EBay expects the purchase to dilute earnings because of $13 million in quarterly charges for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets.
For the second quarter, eBay said it will report net income of $54.3 million, or 19 cents a share, on consolidated net revenue of about $266 million. The company previously estimated revenue in the range of $260 to $265 million.
EBay plans to report full second-quarter results July 18.
-Judy Bocklage; Dow Jones Newswires; 609-520-7811
NoChex.co.uk? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Maybe..... (Score:0, Informative)
s/paypal/PayPal/
s/billion,/billion;/
s/Major/major/
s/spelling$/spelling./
Yeah, I agree... BUT... (Score:2, Informative)
They already have my credit card info and that should be enough. My losses are limited if some bozo breaks into my Paypal account and pays for something with my credit card.
If they have my checking account info, they could potentially wipe me out and I have little to no recourse at that point.
Re:Maybe..... (Score:0, Informative)
You left the period off the end of that third sentence.
Official answer from eBay on Billpoint and more... (Score:4, Informative)
"eBay Payments (Billpoint) will continue to function as a provider of online payment services until the acquisition is finalized around year-end 2002. At that time we plan to phase out eBay Payments (Billpoint) as we integrate PayPal into our platform. Since a majority of eBay Payments (Billpoint) users already use PayPal too, the transition will be quite simple for them. For eBay Payments (Billpoint) users who have never used PayPal, we will work closely with them to make sure that the transition happens in the most user-friendly way possible."
FAQ [ebay.com]
Original announcement [ebay.com]
Discussion #1 [ebay.com]
Discussion #2 [ebay.com]
Re:Yeah, I agree... BUT... (Score:3, Informative)
It's too bad people are stupid. If nobody would agree to give their bank account information out then paypal would be forced to go bankrupt or change their policy.
Paypal is not FDIC insured and has already had incidents where bank account information was leaked and customers suffered without any recourse.
Re:Smart Move for Ebay, bad for paypal people. (Score:2, Informative)
I do not. If paypal becomes the universal standard for person to person financial transactions online, they stand to make much more money than if they only sold "ebay bucks."
This, however, does appear to raise a conflict of interest prospects. Now eBay would stand to make money from:
Listing fee
Final sale price
Payment (and whatever fees they dig up for that)
In effect controlling the entire transaction (unless you choose to pay via check or money order.) I prefer using PayPal for international purchases, as it keeps conversion, etc. simple and offers some protections against fraud.
I'm very disturbed at their cavalier attitude about changing key pages, without warning or period of online evaluation. Expect the same devil-may-care attitude with respect to how PayPal works.