PayPal President: 'Great Progress' On Bill Me Later Integration
By Scott Morrison, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The head of eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) PayPal unit said
Tuesday that the online payments group was making "great progress" integrating
recently acquired Bill Me Later, which enables online retailers to offer
shoppers credit.
PayPal President Scott Thompson said the first phase of the BML integration
will be rolled out this summer, with the second phase due to be implemented by
the first quarter of next year. He noted that PayPal's margins would take a
slight hit over the next two years as a result of the integration, but margins
would return to historical norms afterward.
Thompson made his comments at the Credit Suisse Global Media and
Communications Convergence Conference, which was Webcast.
The San Jose, Calif., company last year bought Bill Me Later, saying it was a
"perfect complement" to PayPal and would increase eBay's exposure to larger
online merchants. BML's proprietary underwriting system tells shoppers within
seconds if they're approved for credit, without detailed application forms.
Thompson said that, unlike traditional bank underwriting cycles, BML's model
looks at each transaction and relies on three credit bureaus, as well as data
about eBay and PayPal users, to determine whether shoppers should be granted
credit.
"We know their patterns. We know their history. We know if they have had
problems before," he said. "The scoring engine just keeps getting better and
better."
Thompson said BML this summer will become a payment option available to
shoppers who have PayPal accounts. It will also become a checkout option for
shoppers who use eBay's marketplace. He added that by the first quarter of next
year, BML will be embedded as a payment option side-by-side with PayPal on
merchant sites around the Internet.
Shares in eBay were recently up 6 cents to $17.70.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-09-091548ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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