PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders and performs payment processing for online vendors, auctions sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee. In early 2002, the company went public and later that year in October, was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. www.paypal.com