PayPal Inc. of San Jose, the payments subsidiary of eBay Inc., has bought VeriSign Inc.'s payment gateway business, which handles credit card transactions for online merchants.
The buyer said Monday that it had paid $370 million in cash plus acquisition costs. The deal was announced Oct. 10; its expected effect was reflected in eBay's earnings guidance for the current quarter and next year.
PayPal has been expanding its business beyond eBay's online auction site by offering more services designed for non-eBay merchants. However, its business is still rooted in eBay; in the third quarter, 69% of its payment volume came from the eBay marketplace.
The former VeriSign unit has more than 100,000 small and midsize business customers and handled more than $40 billion in payments last year - just over twice PayPal's volume. VeriSign is based in Mountain View, Calif.
