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• A close look at PayPal

  Posted Jun 25 2008, 11:21 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Amazon, eBay

  

  PayPal is a shining star within eBay, and a reason to buy the stock at its cheap price. The online payment service has grown fast since eBay bought it for $1.5 billion in 2002. Now you can use PayPal to buy airline tickets, rent movies at Blockbuster and pay bills. PayPal is used for about 12% of all online payments in the U.S. (Click here for a breakdown of PayPal's fees).

  Still, I wonder how well PayPal fits these days within eBay, a company that has been distracted by policy changes, user complaints, changing management and a strategy overhaul. EBay certainly has made PayPal what it is today, but are eBay's struggles limiting PayPal's potential? EBay shares rose less than a percent today to $28.16.   Read More...

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• Tech companies and their hidden gems

  Posted Jun 23 2008, 12:15 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Apple, Amazon, eBay
  Rating:

  Four tech companies land on Seeking Alpha's "Six screaming stock buys with hidden gems" report: Amazon, Apple, Google and eBay.

  I agree that each company has its "hidden gem," but not sure that every gem makes its owner a screaming buy. YouTube is a gem within Google, but it doesn't collect much revenue and Google hasn't figured out how to monetize it. Amazon has never disclosed Kindle sales figures, so we don't know how the device is affecting the company's finances.   Read More...

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• Did the eBay boycott work?

  Posted Feb 25 2008, 12:24 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Amazon, eBay
  Rating:

  

  The weeklong boycott of the eBay auction site ends today. But did it accomplish anything?

  Fed up with recent fee hikes and other policy changes, some eBay sellers decided to boycott the site from Feb. 18 through today. Third-party tracking sites say auction listings have dropped about 13% since the strike started to 13 million items listed.

  Ebay shares dipped slightly over the past week, but have returned to where they started -- at just under $28. The share price closed up 30 cents to $28.01 today on news that Shopping.com CEO Josh Silverman will now run eBay's Skype online telephony unit.   Read More...

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