The acquisition extends the company's leadership in payments by combining BILLSAFE with eBay's PayPal, a global leader in online payments. The deal follows eBay Inc.'s minority stake investment in the company in October 2010. eBay Inc. now owns 100 percent of the outstanding shares of BillSAFE. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Together with BillSAFE, we can offer even more choices to our customers – whether they prefer to pay with their bank accounts, their credit cards or now through purchase on invoice"
By combining BillSAFE with PayPal, which serves more than 15 million accounts in Germany, PayPal believes the addition of BILLSAFE will provide a comprehensive payment service for merchants and consumers. BillSAFE works with merchants of all sizes in Germany, giving them a simple and secure way to let shoppers purchase using an invoice. Customers simply select the item they want to buy, and then they receive an invoice for payment after the item is received.

Purchase on invoice is the most popular form of payment in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In German e-commerce alone, 19.6 percent of payments were billed via invoice. According to the latest study on e-commerce by EuPD research, 84.8 percent of German online shoppers have already purchased on invoice.

"German customers are extremely security-conscious, and they enjoy the convenience and safety of invoicing when they shop online. One of PayPal's greatest assets is the security of our system, and we're glad that we can now offer customers even more peace of mind with a payment method that they already know and prefer and that drives more sales for the merchants," says Arnulf Keese, managing director of PayPal Germany. "Together with BillSAFE, we can offer even more choices to our customers – whether they prefer to pay with their bank accounts, their credit cards or now through purchase on invoice," Keese adds.

"Purchase on invoice is an ideal addition to the payment options available with PayPal and makes it the most comprehensive service for consumers and merchants alike," states Alexander Ey, managing director of BillSAFE. "Security-conscious shoppers can receive and inspect the merchandise they bought online before paying for their purchases. And merchants can sell to customers who were previously skeptical of buying online. It's an ideal match," says Ey.

eBay Inc. does not expect the acquisition of BillSAFE to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in conjunction with its third quarter earnings release on October 19, 2011.