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PayPal Announces Intent To IPO

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-while-it's-good dept.

seek31337 was the first to write to us with the word-direct-from-the-mouth that PayPal has announced its intention to IPO. Not much other details, but interesting nonetheless.

6 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Hrm... by Bob+McCown · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if I can buy shares using my PayPal account?

  2. Never really understood... by dmarcov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It always amazes me how investors seem interested in tiny little companies that have a neat idea, but if it ever really takes off could be entirely duplicated by a larger, more well known company, do it all for "free" (ie: ads, having an account, whatever) and not even look back twice at the dark smudge they just ran over.

  3. PayPal isn't your average Dot-Com by Desus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Far from being your average "no value, pointless" dot com, PayPal serves a purpose to users of On-line auctions. I remember the days of yore when I had to walk about 20 miles ;) to go buy a money order because nobody wants to accept a check on-line (are u serious? Do u know what kind of people use the net LOL)
    Paypal takes all the extra steps out of this process and to those who's tech skills aren't enough for them to wade through Billpoints sign-up process, PayPal is the DE FACTO online payment service. Just do a quick check on eBAY for the number of auctions that only accept payment through paypal.
    Good luck with this IPO. I'll buy some shares.

  4. Well run, good people, a business model that works by helloRockview · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Not surprisingly, a lot of Slashdoters doubt PayPal...which is understandable, since it's so difficult to believe that any pure-play dot com can survive these days.

    However, I've had the pleasure of working closely with many of PayPal's senior management over the past two years, back since they merged with X.com. I can tell you three very important things:

    1. The P2P space is actually a loss leader. Most of their profit is made in the B2B and B2C space - not pure P2P as most people believe. They do very well in these spaces and recent analysts predict that their revenue was between $80 and $100mil last year. That's a heck of a lot better than most of the not-coms we've seen over the past several years.

    2. They have an incredibly intelligent, dedicated and savvy staff that understands their market and industry.

    3. They have a business model that works.

    In my opinion, these three items equal success.

    I love their service and I enjoy working with the company. If I didn't enjoy my current job so much, I'd probably apply for a job with them.

  5. Re:Well run, good people, a business model that wo by OmegaDan · · Score: 5, Informative
    Wrong wrong and WRONG! Many of my friends have been ripped off by paypal. Paypal is a security disaster, and when you are ripped off, they won't be interested in helping you.

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/paypal.htm l

    http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/02/23/pay _p al/

    Paypal victim site: http://chips.dyndns.org/~xcomvic/

    http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,26 05 840,00.html

    etc etc etc ... One scam goes like this : The victim sells an item, are paid via paypal -- they ship the item, once the scam artists has recieved it, they can force the CC company to reverse the charge because theres no signature ... Paypal is debited the money, and paypal *TAKES THE MONEY FROM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT* without your authorization. A buddy off mine lost 350$ AND his DX7 keyboard this way ... fuck that

    --
    Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
  6. PayPal is feeling the Breeze by friday2k · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please folks, before you get over exited, I would consider that there is some panic on PayPals side involved in going for IPO, getting new capital in and expand RAPIDLY before others catch up. PayPal used to be pretty unique and the banks (even if Deutsche Bank was one of the original investors), especially big banking, pretty much stayed away from them. Why did the banks do that? They thought a technology driven company like Paypal (and DigiCash (today known as eCash Technologies), CyberCash(aquired by VeriSign and others), GlobeSET(acquired by Trintech) and many more ...) never posed a threat to the big banks. Then Paypal started to do something you shall not do . Disintermediate the banks. Now the banks think, wow, they are stealing customers from us. So there are various new initiatives on their way. Visa 3-D Secure ( See here), which is _first_ aimed to eliminate consumer fraud but has extensions in the protocol for later P2P use, NACHA has several initiatives on the way: ISAP which is again _first_ an internet payment protocol but will carry into P2P later, Project Action which will aim directly at the eBay Payments of PayPal. So they are afraid. They are afraid for a good reason. They need money to compete (and, according to rumours they are pretty much running out of it). So an IPO is a logical step. Maybe they will even make it in these difficult times ...