PayPal tests merchant financing as Kabbage raises debt

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc's payments business, PayPal, already lends money to online shoppers, but it is now starting to finance the merchants who sell on the company's online marketplaces.

PayPal has already tested a financing program for eBay sellers in the UK and it plans similar tests in the United States this year, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Marketplaces is a great innovation lab for us to test new experiences," Gary Marino, senior vice president, global financial services at PayPal, said at eBay's investor day last week. "We've done it successfully with credit and we are experimenting with many new capabilities which will drive share like small business lending."

The UK program and the up-coming U.S. test focus on merchants selling on eBay.com, which number in the millions. The PayPal spokesman said the UK test was only available to a small number of merchants who were pre-selected.

"The pilot program has now ended," he added. "We are working on full rollout plans."

Banks and other providers of loans for merchants pulled back after the 2008 financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing. Factoring, a common source of financing in the retail business that is provided by lenders such as CIT Group and Wells Fargo, can be tough to tap for smaller merchants.

The combination of fast-growing online shopping and a lack of credit for smaller businesses has created strong demand for new types of financing among sellers that ply their trade on Amazon.com, eBay.com and other marketplaces.

KABBAGE RAISES DEBT

Internet firms have already stepped in to satisfy demand from these merchants, who need financing to pay upfront for inventory, buy supplies and even hire extra staff, especially ahead of the annual holiday shopping rush.

Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest Internet retailer, launched a merchant financing program before the holidays last year called Amazon Lending.

On Wednesday, Kabbage Inc, a start-up focused on providing financing to online merchants, said it closed a $75 million credit facility, its largest to date, to fund more advances to merchants selling via online marketplaces including Amazon.com and eBay.com.

"There is a clear void in the market as traditional financing sources remain reluctant to lend," said Tom Affolter, principal at Victory Park Capital, an alternative asset-management firm that led the Kabbage debt financing.

Existing equity investor Thomvest Ventures contributed a significant amount to the $75 million debt financing. Kabbage declined to say how much. Thomvest Chairman Peter J. Thomson is a director of Thomson Reuters Corp, which owns the publisher of this report.

Kabbage, which is also backed by BlueRun Ventures, United Parcel Service Inc and TPG Capital Founder David Bonderman, made 39,048 advances to merchants last year and expects to make almost 100,000 in 2013, Co-Founder Marc Gorlin said. Kabbage has not disclosed the dollar amount of money it has advanced.

PAYPAL'S UK PROGRAM

PayPal's Marino founded Bill Me Later, an online consumer credit business that eBay acquired in 2008. This business, which lends money to shoppers on eBay.com and other websites, is one of the company's fastest growing operations.

BML, as it is known, has helped boost sales on eBay.com, while lowering PayPal's funding costs.

Advancing money to online merchants may increase sales on eBay.com, according to R.J. Hottovy, an equity analyst at Morningstar.

"Allowing merchants to purchase additional inventory, or increase advertising budgets, should theoretically lead to additional eBay listings," he added.

In the UK, PayPal teamed with United Kapital, a financial-service firm that specializes in merchant cash advances.

The UK program offered merchants up to 25,000 pounds from United Kapital to spend on anything related to their business, including advertising, buying new products to sell, website re-design, refurbishing physical stores and hiring staff.

Merchants applied online by entering their PayPal account details. If approved, the size of the advance they got was based on their past PayPal sales receipts. Merchants got a decision within 72 hours of applying, according to PayPal.

The advances were paid into merchants' PayPal accounts. They were charged a fee based on their credit risk.

In a working example provided by PayPal, a merchant got an advance of 12,000 pounds. The fee for this was 3,240 pounds, or 27 percent of the amount advanced.

Merchants could then choose to re-pay the money as a percentage of their daily PayPal sales receipts. In the example provided, the merchant agreed to a 12 percent rate, meaning 12 percent of their daily sales were used to repay the advance.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Bernard Orr and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paypal-tests-financing-online-sellers-kabbage-raises-debt-123353926--sector.html

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U.S. Attorney's Office asks judge to toss motion to ... - Crime Blog

Screengrab of Barrett Brown from a YouTube video posted on September 12

Journalist-turned-hacktivist Barrett Brown has been in a federal detention center since September, when FBI agents raided his apartment while he was engaged in an online chat. And he will remain there until at least September, when he?s due to stand trial for more than a dozen criminal charges, among them threatening an FBI agent, conspiring to release the personal information of a U.S. government employee, identity theft and releasing credit card information.

Brown, the not-a-spokesman for Anonymous and the subject of a D cover story in 2011, has now become an international story: A lengthy piece on the U.K. Guardian?s website appeared on March 21 beneath the headline ?The persecution of Barrett Brown ? and how to fight it,? and insists Brown?s being punished by the government for trying to reveal ?the secret relationships and projects between ? intelligence firms and federal agencies.?

Aside from its myriad indictments, the federal government hasn?t said much about its case against Brown ? or what it?s after. But according to a motion to intervene and quash subpoena filed yesterday, the government is attempting to get its hands on records related to domain name server Cloudflare ? and, more specifically, those involving someone named Sebastiaan Provost, who, according to the motion, ?built newsgathering websites for Mr. Brown.? Jason Flores-Williams, a New Mexico attorney, filed the motion.

The U.S. Attorney?s Office promptly responded, asking the judge to dismiss the motion. Sarah Saldana?s office offers several reasons, among them Flores-Williams isn?t licensed to practice law in Texas and he
?failed to explain why it was not possible to confer with the government? before he filed his motion. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay has yet to rule.

Flores-Williams is among a handful of activists attorneys who co-founded the Whistleblowers Defense League, whose creation was announced yesterday. Their website says the WBDL ?stands with those brave souls willing to act against and expose the damaging corporate and political forces injuring our democracy.?

In a press release, WBDL co-founder and attorney Jay Leiderman, who has represented Brown in the past, says, ?The internet is the new frontier for civil rights. This indictment of Barrett Brown, like Ai Weiwei, is an affront to democracy. We have to stop this government from criminalizing dissent in our society.?

Doug Morris, the public defender representing Brown, says it ?appears the government is trying to get information from these folks, and they believe it?s related to Mr. Brown. That?s what it tells me.? And, for now, that?s all he knows about Flores-Williams? motion. Morris also doesn?t want to comment on how his client is doing behind bars. For that information we must instead turn to Vice, which published an interview with Brown last week ? shortly after Brown?s mother pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice by hiding computers for her son.

?I don?t want to talk to you about the case or the people involved at this point, but obviously I?m not terribly worried about it,? he insisted. When asked why not, he responded: ?Just because of my knowledge, I know how long they were in there monitoring our stuff. ? I know what documents and records of my activities are available. They?re trying to claim that I intentionally tried to spread credit card information, but I was opposed to that. And I was on record being opposed to it. They?re just not aware of that. They don?t have their [expletive] together in terms of going through what they spied on me regarding ? and I obviously know what?s there in that evidence so ? I?ve always been opposed to spreading credit cards.?

Brown, ruled competent last January to stand trial, was initially scheduled to go to trial in March. But his attorney asked the judge for the OK to put it off until September, which gave them more time for discovery.

?Every case is unique,? says Doug Morris. ?If you have an illegal reentry case, that doesn?t take a long time. Felony possession of a handgun ? did you have the gun or not? But if it?s computer-generated, there?s a lot of discovery, and it takes time.?

Brown remains behind bars because, according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Stickney?s September ruling, ?Mr. Brown is a danger to the safety of the community and a risk of flight.?

Motion to Intervene and Govt Response

Source: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/u-s-attorneys-office-asks-judge-to-toss-motion-to-intervene-in-the-case-of-detained-hacktivist-barrett-brown.html/

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Lindsay Lohan Pregnant? World Scoffs at Late Night Tweet

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/lindsay-lohan-pregnant-world-scoffs-at-late-night-tweet/

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Caroline Kennedy to be named ambassador to Japan (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295949350?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Termanology Goes Back To Rap Roots With Hood Politics VII

'I got some time to just get in the lab and go crazy,' Term tells Mixtape Daily about his decision to revisit his Hood Politics series.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Ade Mangum

Termanology
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704774/termanology-mixtape-hood-politics-vii.jhtml

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Credit Karma Raises $30 Million Series B, Becomes More Like Mint As It Expands Beyond Credit Monitoring

Credit Karma, the free online credit monitoring startup founded back in 2008, is today announcing $30 million in Series B financing, in a round led by new investors Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation from existing investor Felicis Ventures. The company has now grown its user base to 10 million, and increased revenue by over 4,000 percent since its Series A in 2009. In addition, Credit Karma is launching a new platform called Insight today, offering a real-time view into users' overall financial health.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aB3OGWyF3Qs/

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Man fatally shot outside northeast Ohio church

ASHTABULA, Ohio (AP) ? Police in northeast Ohio are investigating a shooting outside a church that left one man dead after an Easter service.

A member of the Hiawatha Church of God in Christ said the man was shot soon after Easter services ended, around 1:15 p.m. Sunday. Joan Crockett said the man knew the shooter, and that a suspect was taken into custody.

Media reports identified the victim as Richard Riddle, 52, and said his son was the shooter.

Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell told the Star Beacon in Ashtabula that dispatchers received multiple calls about the shooting from inside the church and that a mass shooting was feared. He said at least six other law enforcement agencies rushed to assist local police.

The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland reported that the church's pastor said congregants were leaving when they heard a gunshot.

"People pushed me into a back office and said, 'Somebody's here with a gun,'" said the Rev. David Howard Jr. "The guy was outside hollering and acting crazy."

There were no immediate reports of any other injuries.

Howard said the church has about 175 members. He said people at the church didn't know what led up to the shooting.

"It's such a tragic loss," Crockett said.

County Coroner Pamela Lancaster told the Star Beacon that Riddle's wound was "immediately fatal." She said the body will be transferred to the Cuyahoga County coroner's office for autopsy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-fatally-shot-outside-northeast-ohio-church-054816785.html

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