The leading shopping and online auction site ebay has acquired some new properties amidst the rumors of offloading stumbleupon. ebay acquired Bill Me Later for around $820 million in cash and approximately $125 million in outstanding options. Bill Me Later is a US company which allows consumers to pay their bills securely on the web or over the phone. Bill Me Later was a serious competitor of PayPal’s Later service and because PayPal is already owned by ebay so this move makes real sense.

Other than that, ebay has acquired two regional websites of Denmark. ebay has acquired Denmark’s leading classified site dba.dk and a vehicle site bilbasen.dk for approximately $390 million in cash.ebay further plans to cut 10% of its workforce to simplify and streamline eBay’s organization, improve the company’s cost structure and strengthen the overall competitiveness of the company’s existing businesses.

These developments were not expected but it seems that ebay wants to capitalize on PayPal now or in the segment of e-commerce more dedicatedly where the money is real. ebay was looking for some traget classified websites to complement its auction biz. The buyout of dba.dk is certainly in that direction only.

Bigger companies are gearing themselves up for an expected Recession in the American markets and we will see this development impact the e-commerce niche in times to come.

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