It was a phenomenon not seen almost since the good old days of three or four years ago: An Internet company launches an IPO and its stock shoots up the next day. PayPal Inc., an online payment service available to any consumer with an e-mail address, offered 5.4 million shares for sale on Thursday at $13 a share. By mid afternoon today, they had gone up 62% in price to $21.
But also just like in the old days, the newly public company has yet to make any money. In fact, it had accumulated losses of $264.7 million from its start in March 1999 through Sept. 30, at the time PayPal filed its IPO prospectus.
PayPal's online payment system had 10.6 million business and personal accounts as of Sept. 30. Payments made through PayPal amounted to $2.3 billion for the nine months ended Sept. 30. Revenues reached $30.2 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $2.3 million in the year-earlier quarter.
On top of the good news about its successful IPO, PayPal also announced today it expects CertCo Inc. to file a motion seeking a preliminary injunction against PayPal, as early as today, in a patent infringement case that CertCo has brought against PayPal.
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