eBay's PayPal acquires payment gateway firm Braintree for $800M in all-cash deal

PayPal Inc, the online payment company owned by eBay Inc, has acquired Chicago-based payment gateway firm Braintree Payment Solutions LLC for $800 million in an all-cash deal. The transaction is expected to close late in the fourth quarter of 2013, eBay said in a press statement.

Post-acquisition, Braintree will continue to operate as a separate service within PayPal under the continued leadership of Braintree CEO Bill Ready. Braintree's management team and employees are expected to stay in place. Braintree's mobile app Venmo, which gives people an easy way to pay each other using their mobile devices and leveraging social networks, is part of the acquisition.

Founded in 2007, Braintree helps online and mobile businesses to accept credit card payments by providing a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing and credit card storage. Braintree's payment platform powers next generation innovators such as Airbnb, OpenTable, TaskRabbit and Uber. PayPal is an e-commerce business that allows payments and money transfers through its platform. It already has a strong presence in mobile, projecting mobile payment volume of more than $20 billion this year. The company has a development centre in Chennai in India.

"PayPal was built on helping entrepreneurs grow great businesses online. With this deal, I believe that we will accelerate our capabilities for developers, entrepreneurs, merchants and companies that are building the future," said Paypal president David Marcus.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)