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Ebay buys PayPal

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-think-ebaby.com-should-sell-children dept.

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.

3 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Smart Move for Ebay, bad for paypal people. by Washizu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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 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."

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  2. Bye Bye Billpoint by asv108 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the WSJ:

    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.

  3. BayPal, ePay? by cybermace5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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