eBay acquires Braintree payment gateway as separate PayPal service

Braintree will continue to operate as a separate service within PayPal, led by Braintree Chief Executive Bill Ready, eBay said.

Braintree, which has more than 180 employees, helps to process online and mobile credit card payments by providing a merchant account, payment gateway, billing and credit card storage.

People can transfer money via personal computer or smartphone through PayPal, and are charged on their bank accounts, credit cards or PayPal accounts.

"Braintree is a perfect fit with PayPal," eBay CEO John Donahoe said in a statement on Thursday. PayPal contributed about 40 percent to eBay's total revenue in 2012.

PayPal has also been expanding into the much larger offline market, and is working on ways to convince customers to make transactions with their PayPal accounts instead of using credit cards or debit cards.

eBay said the deal will have a negative impact of 1 cent on its adjusted earnings per share for 2013 and is expected to close late in the fourth quarter.

eBay shares, which have risen about 5 percent in the last three months, were marginally up in trading before the bell. They closed at $54.21 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

© Thomson Reuters 2013