In 2002, what company acquired PayPal?

In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal, bringing the online payment service into the auction site's growing internet marketplace.

PayPal began as Confinity in 1998 and became PayPal after merging with X.com, the online banking company founded by Elon Musk. It went public in 2002, but eBay acquired it later that year, on October 3, in a deal valued at roughly $1.4–$1.5 billion in eBay stock.

The acquisition made strategic sense because PayPal was already widely used by eBay buyers and sellers. eBay had its own payment service, Billpoint, but PayPal had stronger adoption and eventually became the dominant payment method on the platform. A common mix-up is assuming PayPal was created by eBay; it was an independent company before the acquisition.

PayPal remained an eBay subsidiary until 2015, when eBay separated it into an independent publicly traded company. The two businesses still maintain a historical connection, but they are no longer one corporate entity.