One of the area’s fastest-growing companies will merge with a national giant, as online payment service company Bill Me Later said Monday it had reached an agreement to be purchased by eBay for $945 million in cash and options.
The deal includes $820 million in cash and about $125 million in outstanding options, and will combine Bill Me Later with eBay’s PayPal.
“As we got to this scale and started thinking about our options, it became clear we could really change the game by becoming part of this giant company,” said Mark Lavelle, vice president of corporate development for Bill Me Later. “This just became the best option for everyone involved.”
Lavelle said the company would maintain its Timonium headquarters and continue with plans announced last month to move into a customer service center in Hunt Valley.
Bill Me Later has been one of the country’s fastest-growing companies, according to Inc. magazine’s annual list. The company ranked 64th on this year’s list after placing sixth in 2007 with 8,650 percent growth over a three-year period.
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Bill Me Later Chief Executive Officer Gary Marino will continue to operate the company as a business unit of PayPal.
Bill Me Later allows online shoppers to register their credit card information once with the company, and then choose the Bill Me Later option when checking out on sites including Amazon.com. On sites such as eBay, the company’s service will appear as another payment option alongside PayPal and traditional methods, Lavelle said.
“Joining forces with eBay and PayPal makes our service much more relevant,” Marino said in a conference call with investors Monday. “Bill Me Later is a fabulous business, but the opportunity BML and PayPal have together is nothing short of enormous.”
The sale didn’t come as a surprise to David Iannucci, executive director of the Baltimore County Office of Economic Development, who said an exit strategy is a common part of high-tech business plans.
“It was clearly understood that at some point in the future there would be a cash-out by the company,” Iannucci said. “Clearly they’ve got a technology and a niche that has achieved national recognition with eBay making this purchase.”
At a glance
Bill Me Later Inc.
Founded: September 2000
Number of employees: About 300
Locations: Timonium (headquarters), Hunt Valley, San Francisco
Number of clients: More than 1,000 online stores, catalogs and travel partners
