Amazon drops Bill Me Later payment service after eBay deal |
Register here for our next TechFlash Live networking event, March 23, featuring an expert panel discussing the future of online advertising.
Amazon drops Bill Me Later payment service after eBay deal
Amazon.com is ditching the Bill Me Later payment service today.
Speculation had been growing that Amazon would dump Bill Me Later following the company's acquisition by online auction giant eBay a few months ago. Now Amazon has finally pulled the plug on the payment processing service, which does a quick credit check on shoppers and, if approved, allows them to purchase items online and receive a bill in the mail.
I had heard rumblings of the change Tuesday, and received this statement from Mark Lavelle, Bill Me Later's vice president of corporate development and strategic planning, this morning:
"Effective December 31, 2008, Bill Me Later will no longer be offered as a payment option for Amazon.com customers. Based on the change of control of Bill Me Later, Amazon exercised their right in deciding to discontinue offering Bill Me Later as a payments option. More than 1,000 online stores, catalogs and travel partners, currently offer Bill Me Later, because our payment service offers a convenient, flexible way for millions of consumers to shop. We think Bill Me Later provided a valuable service to shoppers on Amazon.com, and we would welcome the chance to work with Amazon.com in the future."
Amazon spokeswoman Patricia Smith confirmed the split but said the company does not comment on vendor relationships.
Amazon started offering the Bill Me Later option this summer after taking a stake in the company -- estimated at 10 percent.
But apparently eBay's ownership of Bill Me Later was too much for Amazon. Amazon also declines to use PayPal, another payment service owned by eBay.
TechFlash Team
Recent Sponsor Posts
Seattle University Software Engineering
Chinwe Okeke (MSE’08) pursued her graduate degree while working as a developer and technical analyst for the Boeing Company. She picked the SU-MSE program for small class sizes and real world learning opportunities offered through the academic service-learning and capstone projects.
The MSE program at Seattle University is geared for working professionals with classes offered in the evenings. The program builds upon the computing experience of its students and offers courses in a variety of technical and management areas of software engineering, with an emphasis on teamwork and a disciplined approach to problem solving.
Marchex is one of Seattle’s largest ad technology companies with 300+ employees providing call and click based performance marketing products, and managing over $100m in ad budget for tens of thousands of advertisers. Our customers range from local businesses to the Fortune 500.
Our talented and creative product engineering group is hiring.
If you are an innovative software design engineer interested in solving difficult problems at scale, across a wide array of technologies from Lucene to Hadoop to Asterisk and SIP then we’d love to hear from you!
Apply now.
Technology Tax Planning – Did You Take The Deduction?
Technology companies require professional advisors who can assist in all aspects of the business. The BDO Technology Practice provides a full range of services tailored to help address the changing needs of domestic and international companies. In addition to core audit and tax services, BDO professionals can assist technology companies with:
· Revenue recognition
· Business combination accounting
· R&D tax credits
· Compensation and benefits
· Business valuations
Backed by 38 national offices and an international network in 110 countries, we have the domestic and global footprint to serve growing technology companies. Contact sphilpott@bdo.com (audit partner), mreeves@bdo.com (audit partner), psmith@bdo.com (tax partner), tzambito@bdovaluation.us.com (valuation), tfiscus@bdo.com, Director, 206.624.2020
Job Listings
- Principal Program Manager - Health Solutions Group - 711442
- Microsoft Corporation
- Software Development Engineer, Senior - SQL - External - 708993
- Microsoft Corporation
- Senior Staff Engineer - Printer & Scanner
- Intellectual Ventures
- Account Executive- Hospital - WA/OR
- RF Technologies
- Installer / Technician
- Northstar Broadband
TechFlash Archive
- March 2010 (185)
- January 2010 (235)
- November 2009 (249)
- September 2009 (278)
- July 2009 (276)
- May 2009 (212)
- March 2009 (286)
- January 2009 (260)
- November 2008 (205)
- September 2008 (6)
- February 2010 (243)
- December 2009 (230)
- October 2009 (305)
- August 2009 (239)
- June 2009 (253)
- April 2009 (254)
- February 2009 (262)
- December 2008 (204)
- October 2008 (122)
