Vervolg Paypal...
Hierbij het via bericht in de Wall Street Journal Technology Update. Het wordt Paypal niet makkelijker gemaakt nu het er naar uitziet dat ze serieus in business blijven. De beurskoers heeft er echter niet onder te lijden...
Closely Watched PayPal IPO Gets Warm Reception in Debut
By RAYMOND HENNESSEY
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- PayPal Inc. completed its tortured road to the public markets Friday, trading strongly higher in its debut.
PayPal, the online-payment service based in Palo Alto, Calif., opened at $15.41, up 19% from the $13 a share offering price, set late Thursday. Around midday, the shares were at $16.60.
The pricing, led by Citigroup Inc.'s Salomon Smith Barney, was in the middle of estimates of $12 to $14 apiece for the 5.4 million shares.
Going into last week, some market analysts believed the deal would price at the high end or above estimates, but PayPal suffered a series of setbacks, causing rare drama for an IPO market that has seen little activity for more than a year.
Just before the offering was set to price last week, PayPal was forced to pull the deal after a rival, CertCo Inc., filed a patent-infringement lawsuit over a CertCo patent issued in 2000.
Word of the lawsuit prompted PayPal to refile its offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But its filings also disclosed some other potential problems. For one, it said that in January it received a letter from Tumbleweed Communications Corp. claiming that PayPal has infringed two of its patents. No lawsuit has been filed yet, and PayPal said it believes Tumbleweed's claims "are without merit."
Another snag for the PayPal offering could well have been a research report and press release issued by Gartner Inc. around the time the IPO was to have priced last week. PayPal said in its filing that its director of communications spoke to a Gartner analyst preparing the report, though PayPal "did not authorize the contacts." Still, the contact may have violated securities laws, which strictly regulate what kind of communication is allowable for a company with a stock sale in registration with the SEC.
Finally, PayPal disclosed that the very nature of its business -- handling financial transactions for Web users and merchants -- is under scrutiny by bank regulators in four states: New York, Louisiana, California and Idaho.
In New York and Louisiana, regulators have said that they believe PayPal is engaged in unauthorized banking, and the company could face up to $25,000 a day in penalties from New York and $1,000 a day in Louisiana, where it has already been forced to stop practicing business.
PayPal has said in SEC filings that it is trying to resolve the issues.
