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EBay today announced that it will acquire U.S. based online payments business Bill Me Later and the Danish classifieds site dba.dk. For Bill Me Later, eBay paid approximately $820 million in cash and $125 in outstanding options, while it acquired the Danish sites for $390 in cash. At the same time, eBay also announced that it plans to reduce its workforce by 10 percent.

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Bill Me Later, which is based in Salt Lake City, launched in 2003 and Amazon, one of eBay biggest rivals, invested in it in 2007. While it doesn't have the name recognition of Paypal, Bill Me Later actually has a larger market share than PayPal and has a number of very large clients, including various airlines, Amazon, TigerDirect, and Apple. According to Gartner, Bill Me Later has seen triple-digit growth in the last few years.

Dba.dk is Denmark's largest online classifieds and auctions site and has been able to challenge eBay in its own market.

Fewer Auction - More Direct Transactions

EBay's move to acquire classifieds sites and payment services is clearly part of the company's ongoing strategy of putting less emphasis on auctions and more on direct transactions. EBay is currently in a bit of a slump and its workforce reduction is clearly meant to keep cost under control while the company restructures its business.

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