VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Secret British spy unit Joint Threat Research Intelligent Group (JTRIG) launched a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on US-based hacktivist group Anonymous' Internet chat rooms, according to leaked NSA documents obtained by NBC News.

Mike Liberatore, the former head of Paypal's enterprise and North American financials, left the company to become the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of San Francisco, US-based payments startup Clinkle.

Apple Inc is already working towards the expansion of its mobile payments service to leverage on its rising number of iPhone and iPad users and iTunes customers, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

A source interviewed by Reuters said billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn had a higher stake in eBay than what was previously reported, saying that his stake was near 2%.

In what could potentially set the stage for a battle with an activist investor, eBay Inc has rebuffed the proposal of Carl Icahn to spin-off its payments platform PayPal, Reuters reported.

Peter Thiel, the early investor of Facebook, aims to raise $750 million for its fifth fund, according to a presentation from his venture firm Founders Fund obtained by Bloomberg News.

The UK website of e-commerce giant eBay will soon allow the sale of Bitcoins and other digital currencies under the Virtual Currency category, CNET reported.

Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia, has just invested an undisclosed amount in BitPay, a US-based startup that provides services similar to a PayPal for bitcoins.

Idea.me, a crowdfunding platform founded in Argentina, now allows people in seven Latin American countries to fund projects and startups using bitcoin in lieu of credit cards and PayPal.

Payments giant PayPal announced its acquisition of San Francisco-based mobile app developer StackMob for an undisclosed sum to help improve its mobile payments apps and services.

E-commerce giant Amazon may have quietly bought Silicon Valley-based mobile payments startup Gopago for an undisclosed amount for a new "ambitious" project, according to Italian newspapers.

PayPal president David Marcus played down the factors Bitcoin obtained in recent months as a potential currency and insisted that it is rather an asset, according to a VentureBeat article.

California-based gifting service Loop Commerce has added a PayPal investment to its previously closed Series A round, increasing the round's total funding from USD7 million to USD12 million.

Thirteen defendants said they were guilty of the cyber attack against PayPal three years ago. They were members of a hacker group known as Anonymous.

Brian Fung, in his report which appeared on The Switch at The Washington Post, said the world is moving away from true mobile payments as evidenced by the presence of plastic card offerings from various companies.