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eBay, which has been on quite the mobile start-up acquisition spree of late, made it public today that it has acquired Where, a company that makes location-based mobile applications and operates a network of local ads and deals.

More specifically, Boston-based Where has been purchased by eBay's PayPal division, which plans to make the start-up a part of its suite of services for local businesses while keeping the Where consumer app intact.

"Local commerce companies like Where are blurring the lines between in-store and online shopping," noted a PayPal blog post by senior director of global communications … Read more

CNET got a few minutes on the phone today with Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at online payment processor PayPal, and asked him his opinion on some current events in the world of security. Here are edited excerpts of the interview with the man responsible for making sure the personal and financial data of millions of PayPal customers and thousands of employees is secure.

Q: Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) targeted at a specific organization and typically seeking to steal data have been in the news a lot lately. Has PayPal been hit by any such attacks?:: Barrett: I do … Read more

It was only a matter of time: American Express has taken a full-out dive into the crowded and ambiguous space full of companies both big and small that are trying to figure out the future of consumer payment transactions. The company today announced Serve, a set of applications designed to let users make payments more easily online or with mobile phones via special accounts funded by credit cards, debit cards, or bank accounts. With this product, the company "aims to expand into new segments of the market that do not rely on traditional charge and credit cards to manage … Read more

PayPal has unfrozen the account of a group helping to raise funds to defend U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been charged with leaking classified files to WikiLeaks.

Accused of punitively banning the account of Courage to Resist, the mobile payment company said in a blog post yesterday that the move was instead triggered because the group had not complied with PayPal policy requiring nonprofits to associate a bank account with their PayPal accounts. Though PayPal said it typically doesn't comment on such matters, it felt it needed to clear the record in this case.

On Wednesday, … Read more

PayPal was hit by an outage early this morning that prevented customers from using the online payment service for more than an hour.

The outage started at 12:11 am PT, according to PayPal's Developer Network. PayPal said it was resolved by 1:23 a.m. PT, though the company acknowledged that access to international PayPal sites, such as ones in the U.K. and Spain, may have been slow or intermittent until 2 a.m. PT

The outage prevented customers from logging into their PayPal accounts. But the company said it didn't affect the ability of merchants … Read more

For a company with more than $2.3 billion in annual earnings and $9.1 billion in revenue, it has been shockingly fashionable to write off eBay. The common refrain: eBay is losing marketplace share. It's so Web 1.0. And eBay can't hang with Amazon.

However, eBay has quietly been turning around a few analysts on Wall Street and its powwow Wednesday won a few over. Simply put, eBay has some heady goals between now and 2013. Here's the bottom line outlook:

How will eBay get to that revenue goal? PayPal will carry the company.

Read … Read more

Nokia and Microsoft make an intriguing pairing of two companies that frankly need each other more than ever. Apple is working on a cheaper and smaller iPhone and Obama wants 4G to blanket the US. Plus, Donald Bell joins us to flick cockroaches with our monkey toes.

Smartphone users looking to sell their current devices to pick up a new Verizon iPhone will find eBay a willing buyer.

The auction site yesterday launched a special two-week promotion through its Instant Sale feature that offers cash to people willing to sell their current smartphones.

Running through February 22, people can receive at least $200 from eBay by sending in any one of a number of phones, including an AT&T iPhone 3GS, a Motorola Droid X, a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, or an HTC Evo 4G. Those willing to part with an AT&T 32GB iPhone … Read more

The FBI is on the hunt for the hackers responsible for a recent wave of cyberattacks launched in defense of WikiLeaks.

FBI agents yesterday executed more than 40 search warrants in the United States as part of their ongoing investigation. Pointing to the group Anonymous, which has taken responsibility for the attacks, the FBI said that the distributed denial of service (DDoS) assaults were facilitated by software the group makes available as free downloads.

Late last year, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and other companies were hit by DDoS attacks triggered by activists in support of WikiLeaks after the companies cut off … Read more