💰 July 8, 2002 – eBay Acquires PayPal
Online auction giant eBay announced on this day that it would purchase PayPal, a fast-growing digital payments platform, for roughly $1.5. The deal unified the era’s biggest e-commerce marketplace with the leading online payment service, streamlining how millions of users paid for items on eBay. PayPal, which had become the preferred way to pay for many eBay purchases, was integrated to replace eBay’s slower in-house system. The merger immediately solidified PayPal’s position as the web’s default payment method, helping accelerate the shift to online commerce.
The acquisition was a pivotal moment in dot-com history. eBay’s vast user base propelled PayPal’s growth far beyond the auction platform, while PayPal’s technology made transacting online more trustworthy and convenient. In later years, PayPal would spin off as an independent company again, but not before becoming a global payments leader. The 2002 union of eBay and PayPal underscored the importance of secure, easy payments to e-commerce success – a lesson that has shaped online retail partnerships ever since.
Interesting Fact: At the time of the deal, about 60% of PayPal’s business came from eBay users sending money for auction buys. eBay’s own payment system was so unpopular that many sellers wrote “PayPal accepted” on listings even before the merger – a user-driven endorsement that essentially forced eBay to embrace PayPal or get left behind.