Slashdot Mirror
Ebay buys PayPal
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.
I have noticed the one sketchy part about the whole Ebay experience has be the payment path. Perhaps now it
will be better integrated.
Don't read this!
Who else can see paypal becoming a "have money sent to you, but only be allowed to be spent on ebay" type of service?
I get my pay from germany with paypal, if they change it to you can only use your paypal money to pay for ebay stuff, ebay will gain, but we will all be stuffed.
Is it really that unrealistic?
Microsoft IIS is to webserving as KFC is to healthy eating
Maybe they're just tring to set a record for the largest sale on their own auction site. You too could own paypal. Bids start at 1 billion, 2 billion dollar reserve.
Did they pay using Paypal?
--
J Boylan
Ebay Payment is substandard. I hope this doesnt effect the new paypal.
eBay had long had the "Billpoint" payment option, but very few people used it--instead, PayPal became very popular. Although it wasn't as easy to set up as Billpoint, it didn't have any silly fees (at least not from when it began) and just worked better.
:)
So I find it funny that this happens now
Controversy over eBay? How about the controversy over Pay Pal (the Gestapo of the 21st century).
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
It was only a matter of time before this happened. PayPal was being used in a lot of places, but most people I know started off using it for Ebay. So why not take it..
Wouldn't surprise me if we see "EBay Passport" not too far in the future, or some service along those lines...
I wonder how they purchased PayPal? Via PayPal? Is that even possible? or did PayPal put the company up on EBay and auction it off with little floofy homebrew pictures?
what are those?
Are they going to call it ePal or PayBay?
http://www.linkdj.net/
"in a deal worth $1.5B in stock"
And they couldn't evan play though paypal...hmmm..
Cruise TT
Ebay took the "Buy now" option. I'd have always figured they would have opted for a fierce bidding war with billg@microsoft.com. Assuming Paypal is guaranteed against DOA, the sellers of Paypal should get positive feedback.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Microsoft successfully bids for the combined eBay/PayPal corporation, purchasing both companies in a single fell swoop.
The new combined entity is purported to be entitled: "MeBayPal" (NASDAQ: MEAL) and will be integrating Microsoft Wallet into their next generation "secure" order and purchasing system.
It turns out they just fell for some Finnish guy's scam (never send $1.5B of stock to a P.O. box!). He claimed he was selling PayPal "for a friend", but oddly became angry upon suggestion of sending it C.O.D. Unfortunately, due to their toothless fraud protection policies, it looks like they're just gonna have to suck it up and take the loss.
Better luck next time, eBay! They probably should have bought PayPal through an escrow service...
Maybe I'm reading some other article at the given link, but I don't see any mention of controversy surrounding ebay.
Ebay owns paypal. Paypals database of user information, which is very sensitive information, is now property of ebay. I trust ebay even less that I trust paypal. Time to delete that paypal account! Who knows what kinds of changes to the TOS, Privacy Policy, etc. will be made in secret.
Does this mean when I make a claim on my E-bay insurance I work through paypal? :-)
Fault loves the past, worry loves the future, but content enjoys the present.
Ebay's business model is almost perfect: no warehouse, few employees with average qualifications, buildings can be in the middle of nowhere, no suppliers, no stocks, customers take care of themselves. Paypal, on the other hand, requires more customer care - I could be wrong on that but I suppose it does.
I'm going to play silly here. What do they really gain? Is Paypal that profitable or are they just going to push Paypal users towards spending their dollars on ebay?
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
EBay agreed to buy PayPal, a popular payment service, in a stock-swap transaction valued at $1.5 billion. EBay, which separately reported stronger-than-expected earnings, will phase out its in-house Billpoint unit.
I'm sure billpoint wont be missed until paypal fees are raised due to lack of competition.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
they would have bought them 6 months ago, but PayPal had frozen eBay's account.
PayPal, while secure, isn't exactly cheap. While it's quick and secure, if you use credit cards and direct deposit. The fees for transfering funds are outrageous. I think PayPal starts to make up for it through the services they provide that are similar to any other bank. Still not to happy with the chunk of MY check that they take.
Why would ebay do this? Simple, that way they control every part of the bidding experience, from the post, to the bid, to the buy ... I see them maybe trying to buy fedex next. I mean why not, let's plaster EBay on everything!!
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Kinda strange how E-bay is transforming the internet economy. They are the only company that has realized that when dealing with the consumers on the internet, you have to let them choose their own prices, or you have to let them have very low prices.
:-)
By getting paypal, it sets E-bay up to handle all of their transactions reasonably smoothly (I haven't had problems, but I do hope that the problems other people have had are being resolved.) As well, it might open up the opportunity for E-bay to start selling even more select items, and basically control the simplest internet money transaction service that will be used by most small companies.
(I hate to use analogies from games, but this is a good one.) In the game Civ:CTP, there is a world bank wonder, through which all transactions made in the world are processed. It is a terrific idea if it can be made secure and easy to use. E-bay right now, since it owns such a large auction site, and now one of the better internet payment companies, has the potential to be this internet world bank. By allowing any company to process payments through a simple central server with a few administration and hardware fees.
Just some interesting ramblings.
~ kjrose
This is an interesting development. I really don't think we should be worried about some kind of monopoly appearing here, since the success of eBay depends on hundreds of thousands of sellers.
We've seen a few moves like this on eBay's part. This is another way that eBay is trying to shield itself from being slaughtered in the current economy.
First, you have eBay beginning to offer benefits for sellers over a certain income margin, which should encourage sellers to stay with eBay, which increases eBay's financial security. Then, you have eBay buying PayPal. PayPal is one of the most influential external factors to the success of eBay; if PayPal went under, many sellers and buyers would have more difficulty making transactions.
This also allows eBay to begin attacking the single factor that keeps many people from buying at online auctions: fraud. Before now, eBay did not have any ability to track fraudulent users, or take any action against them if they used PayPal. Now, they have the ability to go after and probably halt fraud for the most part.
Overall, this looks like a very intelligent business move, and one that should help continue eBay's pattern of success.
...
The parent post is suggesting that CmdrTaco is incompetent. Jaime, please set his karma to -1.
... here and here.
---- scrm
...Pay pal did not just put itself up for auction on Ebay?
After all, Ebay is usually know for getting top dollar for useless stuff...prolly could have gotten 3+ billion.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
I've never successfully been able to get a Paypal account due to their naitionalistic streak. Does the buyout mean they're going to play smart now, or is ebay.ca going to go bye-bye along with Billpoint?
Was it really worth 1.5b to ebay to purchase paypal for their current market segment? Seems to me that they are now (with Paypal) in a much better position to attract some of the small-med sized vendors/manufacturers who can't afford a full dedicated ecom site or want more exposure, and push their product through ebay, not having to worry about setting up separate billing systems for each vendor, simply a paypal account.
rogoke
Asked about the deal, an Ebay spokesperson described PayPal's management as "A++++++++++", calling them "VERY RESPONSIVE" and noting that they "WOULD DEFINITLY BUY FROM AGAIN." PayPal's feedback rating is 1283.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
You guys missed it..sure eBay got PayPal all of it..
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..
Don't Tread on OpenSource
Tring are an obscure, now defunct, model railway manufacturer. They did a lot of (Now also defunct) 3mm (TT) scale stuff.
This has been your daily Slashdot dose of Completely Obscure Useless Crap. Thank you.
It is me, but of all the companies who could have bought PayPal, this is the one I'm the most confortable with. I mean, even tought Ebay is in it for money (after all, you don't buy something at 1.5 billion for fun... or maybe you do, I don't know, I'm not that rich... yet :-p), this is one of the less contreversial takeover/merger that happened in the last few months. They complement each other perfectly, one providing a service, the other the most popular the way to pay on that service.
I don't think tought that Paypal will only work with eBay now. As someone else pointed out, eBay will make a lot more money keeping Paypal as it is right now then making it eBay-centric, tought I'm sure that we'll soon see an option in your eBay account to get a PayPal account, no harm in that.
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, and I've got lots of international users)
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
Now that eBay will control PayPal, this could be a better incentive to keep deadbeat buyers/sellers out of the pool. At least now there may be some real reasons to NOT play dirty and expect to pull it off. I know it's still pretty simple to clean out a bank account and move on, but for those who don't, bank account numbers (and the info associated with them) afford a simple way to track bad eggs as they switch emails and attempt to become 'repeat offenders.'
This is, of course, assuming eBay intends to wield this newly-acquired power for good and not evil...and based on both companies' past behavior, I wouldn't bet on it.
eBayPal? PayBay? Payola?
Thanks for pointing out that story.
God, you'd think some idiot could have found a more informative article to link to than the stupid Register tabloid news.
----
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
It is the domination of an industry. Period. There are no viable alternatives to either.
eBay has 85% of the market.
PayPal has almost the same numbers.
What you get is one company that can control everything in the process of selling goods auction style online. Fees are raised, people who don't play the game get squeezed out.
Yahoo has seen the light and has stopped their auction services in every country except America. Where do the send the traffic? eBay of course.
I like eBay and I like PayPal. I don't like the combination. eBay has shown a historical record of squeezing out the little guy. They will continue this with PayPal who already has draconian methods of handling customer service.
This is a monopoly of an industry pure and simple. The only thing left for ebay to buy is a delivery company and it will be complete.
One of the chief metrics used to determine a monopoly is viable competition. On this web we use it all the time to look at Microsoft. Here it applies as well. Is there a viable alternative to eBay. No. Is there a viable alternative to PayPal. No.
According to the article on zdnet, pay pal will continue to live as a seperate standalone service, while thier current system will be replaced with pay pal. So all of thoses using pay pal outside of ebay don't need to worry.
from the i-think-ebaby.com-should-sell-children dept.
Sterile as a mule, are we CmdrTaco?
actually, i see this working the other way: eBay will start using Pay Pal financial structure to engage in currency speculation and transfers...
GBP10,000 in cold hard British currency! Bid Now!
Kuwaiti Dinars 50,000 going fast!
davejenkins.com |
Raise your hand if you're surprised.
Anyone?
Bueller?
irb(main):001:0>
Yeah, I know, it's for the UK only. But I only live in the UK...
...or does corporate America somewhat resemble a game of Pac-Man?
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Click here or here.
Did n't worldcom trade stock instead of cash for some of the companies that it acquistioned? could n't that be the same thing here with ebay?
1.5B in paypall stock -- Original box, reciept. (Sold by they same folks selling empty PS2 boxes last year)
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Only yesterday, I was doing an EBay purchase, and noticing that PayPal had gotten slightly more clever at circumventing EBay's attempts to steer buyers to Billpoint. I guess they won that battle!
And to think it all started with Trading Pez.
"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."
I'm sure that for far less than $1.5 billion, they could have set up a company that does everything that PayPal does, but without PayPal's reputation for treading mightly close to the borderline between incomptence and plain old criminality?
Does anyone have any theories as to why Ebay want to be tarnished with PayPal's reputation rather that setting up the alternative to paypal that people want?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I trust PayPal about as far as I can throw them, but I like BillPoints just about the same. I always found it rather interesting that they can take money out of my checking account "instantly," but it takes 3-4 days to put money into it (allowing them to earn interest off of mymoney). Of course, there's also PayPal's social engineering attcks ("We can e-mail your buyers when your auctions end automatically, update your PayPal logo to a "Pay Now" button, all you have to do is give us your eBay password...")
To be honest I'm not really sure what to make of this development. In my auctions I've been flip-flopping between accepting one or the other depending on what price I think it will go for (PayPal is a little cheaper for auctions over $15.00), but either way I still feel like I'm getting ripped off from their per-dollar fees. Heck, at this point I'd rather my buyers mail me a personal check instead, and I'm getting to the point where I'm considering to offer my buyers a refund of the $1.27 if they just mail me a money order instead...
Will this make things on eBay more smooth? Will PayPal's fees for e-checks more resemble BillPoint's? Will they now start charging a "deposit fee" just as BillPoint does? Will eBay start throwing around their monopoly power at my expense? Will there ever be a new competitor to them? Will this prevent PayPal and eBay from passing the blame back and forth if there is a problem with a transaction? Will BillPoint's fees drop?
And, most importantly, does anybody else know of a current competitor to both of these people I could switch to?
i can see this being a step in the right direction. with all the problems revolving around paypal, i hope that ebay can resolve it making it a service that's more responsive to complaints. i only hope that they don't make it an ebay only thing. think of the revenue they'd gain if they keep it open to everyone!
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
ISTM I've seen comments that PayPal's customer support is pretty poor. I dunno as I've never had to use it. eBay's "customer support" I *have* had to *try* to use. If my experience and that of some others I've seen is any guide: whatever the quality of PayPal's customer support, eBay will likely make it worse.
:(.
I got so fed up with eBay that I both put up a web page describing my saga (not going to mention it here, for obvious reasons) and I've not had an eBay account for probably goin' on two years. I may have to cancel my PayPal account before eBay gets its clutches on it
Having something like bidpay or paypal better integrated into E-bay would be nice, but Paypal needs to REALLY clean up their act. I use them when I can, but they won't let you have full access unless you "validate" yourself by giving them your checking account information. Which is SO NOT going to happen.
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.
Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
theregister is good .. it seems like slashdot
gets most of their material from them. except
for those incisive johnkatz pilesopoop. it has
gotten to the point where the only good reason
to read slashdot is to rag on the morons that run
it.
yep.
if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em!
It was only a matter of time before Ebay's BillPoint would have pulled the rug from under PayPal's feet. EBay should have stuck with BillPoint, offering their customers incentives to switch to BillPoint. Eventually, they would have made inroads into PayPal's marketshare. It would have taken a year or two, but in the end it would have been much cheaper than $1.5b that they spent.
I thought the people upset with Paypal were a small minority until I tried to use the service. I sold a friend something. PayPal screwed it up. The amount of the transaction was $5. But they managed to take the money from my friends credit card, claim they never took it, charge my friends account for it, giving it a negative balance, and reverse the charge on my account.
So over this $5 transaction PayPal grabbed $15 for itself-- $5 from me, $5 from the friends bank and $5 in a charge to the friends paypal account that they have to pay to fix it.
Then they decided this friend was committing fraud and suspended their account.
This is totally unacceptable. This was the FIRST TRANSACTION for all of us, after we both became verified members, etc. The bank is clear that the money went to paypal, and paypal wouldn't say a peep about what went wrong.
I wouldn't say PayPal was a fraudulent company, but in my experience, they have a %300 failure rate-- 1 transaction and they took money from three entities.
In the end my friend and I both closed our paypal accounts and settled up face to face.
Sheesh.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
While I don't have numbers, I think you'll find zShops is more popular than you think. I buy used stuff off of Amazon constantly, not only because I've found some great prices, but because I don't have to use PayPal.
And my wife, who runs a bookstore, tells me that her store lists their collectable stuff on Amazon and does well with it.
From a user perspective, it's much easier to wander around on Amazon, find the book you want, compare (if applicable) the new/used price, and then order it from some random book dealer without having to deal with back-and-forth emails or new payment options. If you head to eBay and search right off the front page for a book title, you're likely to turn up 20-some irrelevant responses (Brand New Copy L@@K!!! keyword keyword).
-- q
Ebay raise fees? They would never dream of doing that...
C2it from citibank might actually have a chance of success now. They were basically the same as Billpoint, but without the Ebay integration.
Damn! I bid $1.45 billion and ebay sniped me in the last 20 seconds.
If you want to see it in action, go to Centiare. If you have any tech questions, send me a private reply at karln@centiare.com
Oh, before I forget:
So, my wife wants to know why I think advertising on the Internet would be a good idea. But first, I should probably explain the family dynamic: she's an Ivy League grad and attorney while I have a UC degree and CPA certificate. Usually, she's the one who is right, so I figure I should probably listen (as if I have a choice).
I figure it makes pretty good economic sense, since many different sites with low CPM rates still get over a million page views per day. Problem is, she replies, there's probably only around 150-200k unique visitors at any of these respective locations, each of whom is triggering around 5-7 page views per person per day.
And besides, she continued, using the Jungean Archetype model to illustrate her point, the target audience is devoted to reason, not emotion. This, I concede, defeats one of my central tenants: applying a test to determine whether a person is Apollonian or Dionysian, left-brain or right-brain, etc. in order to assess the likelihood of purchasing my $20 cash management program.
To be continued ...Centiare
What will happen to eBay Payments (Billpoint) users?
"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
Original announcement
Discussion #1
Discussion #2
Nobody knew what a "Zshop" was.
Amazon hasn't promoted Zshops or Auctions in years -- they earn far more profit on Marketplace sales.
Now you can get fscked over by two parties during one transaction. That's progress. ;)
Microsoft
AOL
eBay
Is eBay the lesser of three evils?
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Selected commentary:
"Hopefully they will replace the paypal [employees] with the nice eBay people." -pictureman1
"Not sure how I feel about this one. I think I'm leaning towards not happy here. Billpoint has been so easy to use/accept." -luvs-to-read-2
"Will PayPal change and put in place security for sellers against chargebacks as Billpoint has? Will PayPal demand now that everyone be verified and charge a fee to everyone thereby forcing it to be a business type venue as it should be? Will PayPal now quit freezing folks accounts and tying up there funds on a whim without just cause?" -ishipfree.biz
I use eBay a lot (500+ feedback) and have been mostly happy with them. They occasionally step on little guys, and their terms of service get a little creepier with every rewrite, but I still feel safe using them. They are open about technical problems, they keep the site design simple and clean, and they allow you to use your own HTML code and images in your auctions. And the fee structure has grown slowly and carefully, so it's still a good deal to sell on eBay.
But they are still a monopoly, and ONE OF THESE DAYS, the board of directors will be sitting around, thinking about ways to "monetize", "maximize", and "synergize", and they'll do something that SCREWS everybody. I can just smell it. Any day now, I'm expecting a massive fee increase, or a rewrite in the terms of service ("thanks to our partnership with the RIAA, CD sales are no longer allowed"), or some kind of limitation on the small guys, or something...it's coming... I can feel it.
And now by buying PayPal, they just got a little bigger, and they have just a little more control over your online auction life.....
My PYPL stock went up!
As bad as PayPal can be, it is probably better than having an account directly with an online casino.
I, like many other eBay users, will only accept paypal with my auctions because like many others, I have been jilted by the poor quality of service of ebay's own service, Billpoint. While PayPal is certainly not known for being big on customer service, it has always had one thing going for it that kept it alive: It wasn't billpoint.
Paypal's service survived until simply because, shocking as it seems given the horror stories, it was better than the eBay offered alternative. Now with eBay having snagged it, it seems unlikely that they will abstain from changing and likely ruining the service.
Sad indeed.
Apparently, no more BillPoint (why the heck they bought BillPoint anyway?)
. html
Date: 07/08/2002
Time: 04:51:19 PDT
***eBay Agrees to Acquire PayPal***
A couple of weeks ago at eBay Live, I promised you that I would continue to listen to your input as we grow the eBay marketplace. So today, I am excited to announce our plans to acquire PayPal, Inc., the most popular online payment service.
Since many of our members offer PayPal's services, this acquisition makes a tremendous amount of sense. Integrating PayPal's services into our platform is something that many of our members have asked us to do. We believe it will enhance our members' experience by allowing buyers and sellers to trade with greater ease, speed and safety.
We expect the acquisition to be finalized around year-end 2002. Until then, PayPal and eBay Payments (Billpoint) services will continue to function as independent providers of online payment services. When the acquisition is finalized, we plan to phase out eBay Payments (Billpoint) as we integrate the PayPal service. We will provide more detailed information about the eventual integration of PayPal in the weeks and months ahead.
We look forward to working with eBay Payments (Billpoint) users to ensure a seamless transition to PayPal, and with PayPal's users as we integrate PayPal into our site.
For more details, please see the press release and our Frequently Asked Questions page. Look for the webcast of our conference call at http://www.shareholder.com/ebay/.
Regards,
Meg
Investors and security holders are urged to read the proxy statement/prospectus regarding the business combination transactions referenced in this presentation, when they become available, because they will contain important information. The proxy statement/prospectus will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by eBay. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of the proxy statement/prospectus, when available, and other documents filed by eBay and PayPal with the Commission at the Commission's web site at http://www.sec.gov. Free copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and eBay's other filings with the Commission may also be obtained by directing a request to eBay at investorrelations@ebay.com. Free copies of PayPal's filings may be obtained by directing a request to PayPal at investorrelations@PayPal.com.
FAQ is also available at:
http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/acquire
Cover your eyes and click this link!
USPS money orders may be slower, but give you another security layer. they also got their own police force who are mostly bored and love to catch crooks. And they have MO to FRN cash offices all over the country...
Nothing is perfect in the online or over the phone biz. The best is a debit card that you transfer funds in right before you make a buy, always try to keep the balance like 5$ or something. I went and got one of those cards directly on purpose for ecommerce or over the phone, there are zillions of them out there.
Who would be stupid enough to use an online casino? Maybe I should start one. Here is my code for a slot machine.
//Winner
boolean SlotMachinePull() {
if((rand()/RAND_MAX)
return TRUE;
}else{
return FALSE;
}
}
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
--has anyone here used E-gold system? Just wondering pros and cons of it, I like the idea of a metals backed e commerce solution.
I've seen at least half a dozen sites which use Paypal as a means of accepting donations for site upkeep. These are not micropayments however - I don't think anyones figured out an economically efficent means for transferring 2.00USD
Viewed through dot-com glasses, I have trouble seeing the sense in this purchase. Through more traditional financial analysis, I have even more trouble.
EBay is a profitable company (strange, I know!). PayPal is not. Hell, it ain't even close (-78.7M ttm income vs. 139.6M revenue). Buying PayPal puts a serious dent in EBay's own numbers. Before the purchase, its P/E ratio was about 146 ($17B market cap divided by $117M income---I'm looking at 3/31/02 numbers). After, it will be about 448 ($17B market cap divided by $38M income). If that doesn't look bad, consider profit margin. It's currently about 14% ($117M income divided by $840M revenue). After PayPal, it drops to 4% ($38M income divided by $979M revenue). Ouch!
EBay seemed to be one of the (very) few dot-com companies with a head on its shoulders. Now I even wonder about EBay.
Btw, did EBay really think that PayPal would be around for *that* long? At the rate it's bleeding cash and annoying customers, I'd think it would be dead in another 3-4 years. Or, did the EBay CEO forget that sometimes it's useful to think of the long-term future of a company?
Jason
Is there a viable alternative to PayPal? Yes. Its called the USPS, Canada Post, or whatever. Anyone who actually TRUSTS PayPal with their money is seriously derranged. I personally have been screwed to the tune of 60 dollars by them, and I wouldn't touch their service with a 10 foot pole. Thousands of others have simmiar stories. Just do a google search on PayPal fraud.
They didn't spend actual money. They traded stock. Ebay has a market cap of $15b, so it appears that they traded 10% of their company for a company that has about 20% of their revenue, IIRC. It doesn't look like they issued new stock to do this, so the shareholders will not have their shares diluted. Ebay's share price DID go down today, so I guess shareholders CAN bitch about that. If PayPal is ripe for the picking, then the time to take them is NOW, not after you have eroded their market share and profitability.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
And I don't mean the happy gay..
Good thing for Slashdot.... I just got back from holiday and was catching up on the news. I saw this little article and immediately went and cancelled my PayPal account. eBay is in fact "The Great Satan" (don't be fooled by immitations!). I don't need more spam. PayPal was cool in 1999... but, they have gone downhill ever since. Good bye and good riddance! Jeez! You go away for a few weeks and the whole Net goes to hell and gets taken over by AOHell or eBay.
PayPal has recently given me no end of grief. They're currently claiming that I owe them in excess of $21,000 (after someone broke into my account in Feb)- more money than I, as a starving college student, have ever possessed. Bah.