VENTURE CAPITAL POST

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.

Massachussetts-based TV advertising platform Clypd raised USD7.2 million in Series A-1 funding from Atlas Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Boston Seed Capital, and angel investors John Battelle and Brightcove.

Internet payment platform PayPal forged a partnership deal with car service firm Uber Technologies in a bid to reach modern marketplaces that cater to mobile-savvy customers.

PayPal's startup initiative might have been the company's way of giving back to its customers as the payment services company's growth continued to climb to astronomical heights.

In its announcement today, Wonga said it had acquired Germany online payments service BillPay for an undisclosed amount.