PAYPAL

A robust holiday shopping season could lead to strong earnings for EBay, the online auction giant.

EBay Inc's PayPal unit is testing in-store payments with Home Depot, one of the largest retailers in the United States, as the online payments provider moves to expand into the physical world of brick and mortar.

The surprise departure of PayPal President Scott Thompson from eBay Inc could seriously set back any moves to spin-off the payments business as a separate company, investors and analysts said on Wednesday.

Yahoo named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its chief executive on Wednesday, hoping the well-regarded Internet technology and e-commerce expert will replicate his success at eBay Inc and turn around the struggling company.

Jefferies & Co. downgraded its rating on shares of Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) to hold from buy with a price target of $18, after the company announced the appointment of PayPal's President Scott Thompson as new chief executive officer and director effective Jan. 9.

The surprise departure of PayPal President Scott Thompson from eBay Inc could seriously set back any moves to spin-off the payments business as a separate company, investors and analysts said on Wednesday.

The surprise departure of PayPal President Scott Thompson from eBay Inc could seriously set back any moves to spin-off the payments business as a separate company, investors and analysts said on Wednesday.

Now that Scott Thomson, 53, has been elected as Yahoo’s new CEO as well as a director, here are a couple of items the technology savvy accountant needs to take care of fast:

Yahoo elected Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, as its new CEO, four months after ousting Carol Bartz as CEO and hiring investment bankers for a turnaround.

Yahoo Inc. said on Wednesday it has appointed Scott Thompson as its chief executive, effective from January 9, replacing interim CEO Tim Morse who will resume his role as chief financial officer.

Thompson has been president of PayPal, the online payments processing company, since 2008 after previously serving the company as its chief technology officer. According to AllThingsD, Yahoo and PayPal refused to comment on the story. PayPal, owned by eBay, processed $29 billion in payments in the third quarter of 2011, according to records.

Yahoo is poised to name PayPal President Scott Thompson as chief executive after firing former CEO Carol Bartz in September, Web site AllThingsD reported, citing sources close to the situation.

EBay Inc said on Thursday it bought BillSafe, a purchase and invoicing technology provider with clients in Germany, and will combine it with its PayPal online payments service, in a move to strengthen its e-commerce capabilities in Northern Europe.

When craft fail blog Regretsy tried to raise money to buy Christmas presents for children in need, PayPal froze the site's accounts. Its reasoning? Regretsy couldn't use the Donate button for its own donations. Even as it made Regretsy return the toys, however, PayPal was itself collecting a hefty profit in sales cuts and refund fees.

Real estate website Trulia Inc said on Thursday it hired veteran finance executive and deal-maker Sean Aggarwal from eBay Inc's PayPal to help manage a business that has grown significantly in the past year.

Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc., and other online commerce companies had a strong Black Friday, but the industry's growth rate lagged last year's surge in online buying on the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season.

A bipartisan bill to combat online piracy is running into bipartisan opposition over the broad language in the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.

Ever since Ai Weiwei was hit with a $2.4 million tax bill, or 15 million yuan, donations have been flying over the wall of the artist's compound in northeastern Beijing on the backs of paper airplanes.

On Monday, WikiLeaks, the whistleblower Web site, said it was temporarily stopping publication of classified documents and focusing on survival in the face of funding blockades.

Wikileaks, a whistle-blowing Web site known for releasing secret government files, on Monday said it is suspending its publication in order to seek funding to sustain its work. Wikileaks has been forced to shift focus toward fundraising because 95 percent of its revenue has been destroyed.

“WikiLeaks has published the biggest leaks in journalistic history. This has triggered aggressive retaliation from powerful groups.”