EBAY - eBay Inc.
39.26 0.00 (0.00%)
After hours: 4:52PM EDT
| Previous close | 38.82 |
| Open | 38.96 |
| Bid | 39.26 x 900 |
| Ask | 39.26 x 4000 |
| Day's range | 38.93 - 39.29 |
| 52-week range | 26.01 - 42.00 |
| Volume | 4,541,745 |
| Avg. volume | 6,721,198 |
| Market cap | 32.93B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.22 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 15.18 |
| EPS (TTM) | 2.59 |
| Earnings date | 23 Oct 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.56 (1.44%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-08-30 |
| 1y target est | 42.18 |
- Zacks
Earnings Surprise May Lift Stocks: Buy These Growth ETFs
Market participants are betting on the record-high U.S. indices as about 120 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to release their results this week.
- Bloomberg
Google Search Shows Suspect Sites for Drug, Baby Teether: Study
(Bloomberg) -- Google searches for a popular antibiotic and a baby teething product send some users to suspect websites, according to a report released on Monday by a firm that tracks trademark and copyright infringement online.Earlier this year, six of the 10 results on the first page for the Google search “buy Bactrim online” showed links to websites that were “operating unlawfully and misusing” the Bactrim trademark, Incopro Ltd. said in the study.Another Google search for “wholesale Comotomo teether” produced nine organic results that directed users to an online marketplace or e-commerce website. Three of those sites listed “potentially harmful products that misuse the Comotomo trademark,” Incopro also reported.The results are based on searches Incopro ran using its software and data from web marketing firm SimilarWeb Ltd. Incopro wrote to Alphabet Inc.’s Google about its findings and the company said it got a written response from the internet giant, which it quoted in the study.“Google aggregates information published on the web returning users different web pages that relate to their search requests, but we don’t make any claims about the content of these pages,” Google wrote in its response, according to Incopro.Google has had a mixed record in dealing with contentious websites, Incopro said. The internet giant will remove website addresses from its search index for infringing copyright. But it won’t act when it is told that its search engine is pointing to sites selling counterfeits and infringing trademark rights, Incopro said. The firm noted that that other large internet companies including Facebook Inc., EBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. will take action in these cases.“Google takes the view that it is not (and cannot be) a ‘publisher’ when it is told that it is returning results for counterfeit web pages and so it does nothing,” Incopro wrote in its report. “If Google did remove these websites from their index these sites would be starved of oxygen and would fail.”The study suggests that Google search results for antibiotics are still showing suspect websites almost as much as they were three years ago, when another report from the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies showed 65% of search results for prescription drug terms led U.S. consumers to sites selling unapproved and dangerous medication.Search engines like Google should do more to protect consumers from unsafe results, Incopro said. “The FDA and other government bodies have limited resources and cannot be expected to solve every problem,” the report said. “Brand owners should be able to request that search engines de-index these sites themselves.”To contact the reporter on this story: Gerrit De Vynck in New York at gdevynck@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Anne VanderMeyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
eBay (EBAY) Gears Up for Q3 Earnings: What's in the Cards?
Performance of eBay's (EBAY) core marketplace business is likely to have been impressive in Q3. Yet, heightening competition might have hurt its earnings.
- Zacks
Why eBay (EBAY) is Poised to Beat Earnings Estimates Again
eBay (EBAY) has an impressive earnings surprise history and currently possesses the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely beat in its next quarterly report.
- Zacks
Is the Retail Picture Truly Gloomy? ETFs in Focus
We need to see some more months of data before being sure about a retail slowdown.
- Zacks
Tap Revenue Growth With These ETFs & Dump Earnings Recession
These sector ETFs could be played to highlight revenue growth in the third quarter.
- Zacks
EBay (EBAY) Earnings Expected to Grow: Should You Buy?
EBay (EBAY) doesn't possess the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.
- Bloomberg
MercadoLibre Plans to Double Down on Its Brazilian Bet Next Year
(Bloomberg) -- MercadoLibre Inc. will “for sure” invest more than 3 billion reais ($718 million) in Brazil next year with a focus on financial services and logistics, Chief Operating Officer Stelleo Tolda said.MercadoLibre, the e-commerce pioneer in Latin America now worth $28 billion, plans to invest more in its financial services and payments unit while opening more distribution centers and seeking partnerships to cut delivery time further, Tolda said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Sao Paulo office.The early guidance on outlays for next year follows investments of 2 billion reais in Brazil last year and 3 billion reais this year. As competition heats up from the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and local retailers including Magazine Luiza SA and B2W Cia Digital, MercadoLibre is defending its market share of about 33% and looking to get customers to lean heavier on its services for day-to-day shopping and payment solutions, Tolda said.“We strongly believe in the growth potential of this business, so it’s too early to focus only on profitability,” said Tolda, who met MercadoLibre’s founder Marcos Galperin at Stanford University in the late 90‘s and has been leading the Brazil business since the start, 20 years ago.MercadoLibre, based in Buenos Aires but with operations in 18 countries and shares trading in New York, is offering same-day delivery in Sao Paulo and looking to expand its next-day delivery to at least 16 cities in 2020.The firm currently operates two distribution centers near Sao Paulo and will open facilities in other regions, to speed up its delivery in a country larger than the continental U.S.Brazilian e-commerce has more than doubled to 68.8 billion reais between 2013 and 2018 and should almost double again through 2023, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.The newest focus for the company is on the fast-moving train of fintech services courting large parts of the population without bank accounts.MercadoPago, the payments platform, has been leading growth at the company. The number of transactions more than doubled year-on-year in the second quarter with the value surging 47% to $6.5 billion. That compares to $3.4 billion in gross merchandise value from the marketplace.“We see opportunities not only in payments, but also in all financial services, including credit, investments and eventually insurance,” Tolda said. “MercadoPago is also the way through which we believe we’ll have higher recurrence in people’s lives.”MercadoLibre needs to invest in marketing for the MercadoPago brand and search out companies to provide payment solutions and individual customers to use the virtual wallet. Offering payment with cards as well as with QR codes, MercadoPago has already cut deals with a wide variety of brick-and-mortar companies in Brazil such as gas stations, drugstores and the Sao Paulo subway.MercadoLibre doesn’t plan to spin off the financial products unit, which it sees as a way to increase interactivity with customers and attract shoppers into its e-commerce platform, Tolda said. Currently, the average Brazilian e-commerce consumer buys an item per month and MercadoLibre wants to intensify the frequency of purchases to at least once a week, Tolda said.The company recently opened new categories of no-gender fashion and sustainable products in its e-commerce platform to attract younger consumers. It also plans to expand next-day delivery to 16 larger cities, from eight currently, after closing a deal with the cargo unit of airline Azul SA that could help reduce its dependence on the country’s post offices.MercadoLibre has surged 93% year-to-date to $566 on the Nasdaq. That compares to 18% for Amazon, 28% for Alibaba Group Holding and 39% for EBay Inc.After raising $1.9 billion earlier this year, including a big chunk of it from PayPal Holdings Inc., MercadoLibre is focusing on investment in its core businesses rather than any bold new acquisitions, according to Tolda. Talks are ongoing with PayPal on how to collaborate in several areas despite being competitors.“Theirs is a traditional online payment model, and we’re seeing even greater potential offline than online,” with MercadoPago, Tolda said. “It’s an interesting path, this idea of ‘frenemy,’ that exists in the technology market.”To contact the reporters on this story: Fabiola Moura in Sao Paulo at fdemoura@bloomberg.net;Vinícius Andrade in São Paulo at vandrade3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, ;Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Richard RichtmyerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
The Upside to Facebook’s Libra Disaster
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- It’s just as well that big companies that process and facilitate payments have quit Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project, fearing a regulatory backlash. If Facebook really wants to bring financial services to the “unbanked,” it should try doing it on a smaller scale than these companies’ presence promised. And even then, the probability of failure will be high.It’s clear why PayPal Holdings Inc., Stripe Inc., eBay Inc., MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. have decided not to join the Libra Association, which Facebook has been organizing to run the proposed digital currency. They took seriously the recent warning of Senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sherrod Brown of Ohio that because of their membership, they could “expect a high level of scrutiny from regulators not only on Libra-related payment activities, but on all payment activities.” The concern is that a cryptocurrency used in conjunction with encrypted messaging could potentially be used in illegal transactions, and anyone involved in creating such an opportunity would be suspect.U.S. regulators are perfectly capable of scuppering major cryptocurrency projects. On Oct. 11, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had stopped Telegram Group Inc. from distributing digital tokens, so-called Grams, to the investors who contributed $1.7 billion to the creation of the cryptocurrency last year. These include major U.S. venture capital firms such as Benchmark, Sequoia and Lightspeed. The same could easily happen to Libra.That’s the problem with starting so big. Telegram’s token offering was the biggest ever recorded. Facebook made a big announcement on Libra and presented a list of partners that read like a Who’s Who of the payments industry. They envisaged global launches for their cryptocurrencies. Of course regulators and politicians were alarmed.To avoid this kind of outcome, Facebook — whose stated goal with Libra is to offer affordable payment services and loans to people currently priced out of the financial services market — could have tried the strategy that got results for one of its remaining partners, Vodafone Group Plc. Vodafone launched M-Pesa, Kenya’s storied “mobile money,” in 2007, and one of the project’s major assets was the Kenyan central bank’s consent to the launch without any formal regulation. Vodafone’s local cellular operator, Safaricom Plc, quickly built up a network of stores where people without bank accounts could pay in and receive cash, and old-fashioned mobile phones began to double as wallets for transfers and purchases. The lack of regulatory intervention and the large physical network, fed by relatively generous commissions, made sure that by 2019, M-Pesa claimed 37 million active customers in seven African countries. But attempts to transplant the service to many other markets have failed. Vodafone has closed M-Pesa in India (in part because of regulatory obstacles), South Africa (low customer interest), Romania and Albania (apparently it was unprofitable). Vodafone discovered there was no cookie-cutter solution. In different countries, lenders, retailers and mobile operators offered competing services, and regulatory scrutiny varied. To find countries in which to launch such an electronic money service, one would need to go down the list of nations with large populations of the unbanked. The top 20, according to the World Bank, includes big ones, such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil.But in most of these countries, people are already using some form of digital money in lieu of dealing with traditional financial institutions. That’s why the list of 20 countries with the smallest percentage of people who have recently made or received digital payments looks completely different.In other words, it’s not easy to find a country where a lot of people have neither a bank account nor access to other kinds of financial services. And then there’s a chance that the cash-using population of a specific country wants to stay that way. One possible reason M-Pesa didn’t quite work in Albania and Romania is that these countries have large informal economies. With up to a third of gross domestic product “in the shadow,” traceable electronic transactions are unattractive compared with cash. These difficulties of finding good target markets, and ones with friendly regulators to boot, should explain Facebook’s desire to launch at scale, to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But the risk with this approach is that the idea of offering cheap financial services to the unbanked begins to look like a smokescreen for building a huge unregulated bank in the developed world — just what regulators in Europe and the U.S. fear the most.Instead of pushing ahead with the remaining partners and risking the same kind of trouble as Telegram, Facebook should go back to the drawing board and start thinking of smaller projects tailor-made to specific countries’ requirements. Expansion would be slow, and there would be failures and miscalculations along the way, but regulators in each market might be easier to persuade that the project’s goals aren’t nefarious. To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance
Steven Mnuchin would like some credit for the Facebook Libra exodus
Mnuchin says Treasury, and not just the senators who sent letters, also warned Libra Association members about their involvement.
- Bloomberg
Libra Loses a Quarter of Its Members as Booking Holdings Exits
(Bloomberg) -- The Libra Association hasn’t officially launched but has already lost a quarter of its membership, as Booking Holdings Inc., an online travel company that operates websites including Kayak.com and Priceline.com, joined Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and four other companies in leaving the controversial cryptocurrency project spearheaded by Facebook Inc.With the departure of Norwalk, Connecticut-based Booking, the Libra Association now has 21 founding members remaining of the original 28 companies that signed on to the association in June. PayPal Holdings Inc., Stripe Inc., MercadoLibre Inc. and EBay Inc. in the past two weeks have also said they would abandon the project.The remaining members of the Libra Association, a nonprofit that would manage the cryptocurrency, planned to meet Monday in Geneva, Switzerland to finalize its governing charter and initial membership.Libra came under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators as soon as Facebook announced the project. Regulators warned that the cryptocurrency, originally set to launch next year, could be used by criminals if not properly monitored, while lawmakers pilloried Facebook’s track record at hearings in July with Libra co-founder David Marcus.Officials in some countries, including Germany and France, announced that they would ban Libra, saying that the currency could be a threat to monetary policy, among other concerns.Visa, Mastercard and Stripe left the project shortly after receiving a letter from Democratic senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, warning that they could face increased scrutiny if they stayed on board.Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Libra-member Coinbase Inc., on Sunday said the pressure felt “un-American.” “Why the need for the intimidation tactics? This would be called anti-competitive/monopolistic behavior if any private company did it,” Armstrong wrote on Twitter.In the face of the departures, Libra has said more than 1,500 companies have expressed interest in joining the association and that the currency wouldn’t launch until it satisfied regulators’ concerns.Developers have continued to advance the open-source code that would underlie Libra. However, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal could have provided critical experience in navigating U.S. financial regulators’ concerns, making their departures particularly painful. Booking Holdings, which has a market capitalization of more than $84 billion, was among the only remaining large, publicly held companies left in the project.Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify next week at the House Financial Services Committee on Libra, among other topics.Representatives for the Libra Association didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.\--With assistance from Kurt Wagner.To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Light in Washington at jlight8@bloomberg.net;Olivia Carville in New York at ocarville1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Molly SchuetzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 3-Facebook's Libra announces board as support shrinks further
LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Backers of Facebook Inc's Libra cryptocurrency project pledged to forge ahead after selecting a five-member board on Monday, shrugging off the latest member defection by online travel company Booking Holding earlier in the day. The owner of Priceline, Kayak and Booking.com on Monday confirmed that it had pulled out of the group, which is trying to bring digital coins into mainstream commerce. Libra lost its last global payments backers on Friday, when Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc abandoned the Geneva-based Libra Association.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Facebook's Libra faces support test after big payment backers quit
Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency faces a pivotal meeting of backers on Monday, days after the would-be digital coin project suffered a severe blow as major payment firms quit. Mastercard and Visa abandoned the Geneva-based Libra Association on Friday, as did eBay, fintech startup Stripe and payments company Mercado Pago. Politicians and regulators from the United States to Europe have said that Libra risks upsetting global financial stability, undermining users' privacy and facilitating money laundering.
- Simply Wall St.
Estimating The Intrinsic Value Of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY)
Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) by taking the expected...
- Bloomberg
Facebook's Libra Loses Mastercard, Visa in Cascade of Exits
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc.’s effort to create a cryptocurrency was dealt a blow on Friday after several key partners, including Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., EBay Inc., Stripe Inc. and Mercado Pago, abandoned the project. The defections followed fierce criticism from global regulators and lawmakers, and have prompted some industry-watchers to question whether the Libra program can survive.The news comes days before the Libra Association, the group that will oversee the digital currency, prepares to convene its members and ask them to sign a charter agreement. The meeting is slated to take place on Monday in Geneva. A Libra Association spokeswoman said on Friday that the gathering will proceed as planned, and that it would announce the first list of official partners once a formal charter is signed.In a statement, the spokeswoman said the group was "focused on moving forward and continuing to build a strong association" as it worked to create "a safe, transparent, and consumer-friendly implementation of a global payment system that breaks down financial barriers for billions of people."When Facebook launched plans for Libra in June, a critical part of its pitch was that major players in the payments and tech industry were supporting it. The cryptocurrency would be run out of Geneva by the organizations that comprised the Libra Association, not solely by Facebook. But now that that alliance appears to be eroding, the project’s future is uncertain."I don’t think Facebook can do this by itself," said Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities told Bloomberg TV. "Short of a big bank stepping in like JPMorgan, I don’t think this could ever happen."In a tweet on Friday, David Marcus, the Facebook executive spearheading the effort, said that the exit of six partners would not derail the effort. "I would caution against reading the fate of Libra into this update," he wrote. "Change of this magnitude is hard. You know you’re on to something when this much pressure builds up."Whether or not Libra implodes, the exits highlight the extreme challenges that lie ahead for the project, which if successful could have a sweeping impact on the global financial system. "It may very well fail completely," said Lisa Ellis, an analyst at MoffettNathanson. Even if it survives, progress will take much longer and "it’s likely to fall into some level of obscurity," she added.Facebook has faced fierce backlash since the company announced plans for Libra. Politicians and regulators around the world have called on Facebook to halt its progress, and some have suggested Libra could be used for illegal money laundering or trafficking schemes.Despite the scrutiny from public officials and the exodus of partners, Facebook remains committed to Libra, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Some people inside the company think the defections are partly driven by established payments providers worrying about a new entrant encroaching on their turf, the person said.In the months since its announcement, Facebook has frequently found itself in the spotlight over the cryptocurrency. Marcus went to Washington in July to testify before Congress about Facebook’s plans. Later this month, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before the House Financial Services Committee to answer even more questions about Libra.Earlier this week, two U.S. senators cautioned Visa, Mastercard and Stripe to reconsider their involvement in the project. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Brian Schatz of Hawaii said that Libra poses a risk to not only the financial system, but the payments companies’ broader business. "We urge you to carefully consider how your companies will manage these risks before proceeding," they said a letter to the companies.Mastercard said in a statement that it will "remain focused on our strategy and our own significant efforts to enable financial inclusion around the world," adding, "We believe there are potential benefits in such initiatives and will continue to monitor the Libra effort." Visa said the company would also continue to evaluate whether to join in Libra in the future, and that the company’s "ultimate decision will be determined by a number of factors, including the Association’s ability to fully satisfy all requisite regulatory expectations."In a statement on Friday, EBay expressed its support for the project, but said it would focus on rolling out its own payments products. “We highly respect the vision of the Libra Association; however, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member,” an EBay spokesman wrote in the emailed statement. “At this time, we are focused on rolling out eBay’s managed payments experience for our customers."Payments giant Stripe, one of the most high-profile startups to sign onto the project, signaled it remained open to working on it in the future. “Stripe is supportive of projects that aim to make online commerce more accessible for people around the world. Libra has this potential,” said a company spokesperson. “We will follow its progress closely and remain open to working with the Libra Association at a later stage.”The Libra Association is composed of about two dozen organizations, including Facebook. A Lyft Inc. spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that the ride-hailing company remains a member. Other companies that have not signaled plans to leave include Uber Technologies Inc., Spotify Technology S.A., Coinbase Inc. and telecom providers Iliad SA and Vodafone Group Plc. PayPal Holdings Inc. dropped out last week. (Updates with David Marcus comment in 6th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Candy Cheng, Lizette Chapman, Spencer Soper and Lydia Beyoud.To contact the reporters on this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.net;Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.net;Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMey, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Facebook Q3 2019 Earnings Preview: Time to Buy FB Stock?
Let's take a look at what investors need to know about Facebook and some of its Q3 estimates to help us determine if FB stock might be worth buying before the social media company reports its Q3 2019 earnings results...
- Reuters
Facebook's Libra currency abandoned by major financial companies
The two companies announced they would leave the association Friday afternoon, as did EBay Inc, Stripe Inc. and Latin American payments company Mercado Pago. The latest exodus leaves the Libra Association without any remaining major payments companies as members, meaning it can no longer count on a global player to help consumers turn their currency into Libra and facilitate transactions.
- Market Realist
Women CEOs: 5 Names You Should Know
Of all the Fortune 500 companies, only 5% have women CEOs. We rounded up five of the biggest names investors should know. Here's why.
- Zacks
Is Holiday Season Frenzy Fading for Retail ETFs?
The past trend shows that holiday season shopping euphoria is losing its craze, per Coresight. These retail ETFs may be hit hard if that be the case.
- Yahoo Finance
WeWork, eBay, and Wells Fargo: 2019 has seen a mass exodus of CEOs in the US
In just the past few weeks, the top executives at major U.S. companies including WeWork, eBay, and Juul have left or been forced out of their posts — but they are just the latest exits in a year with an unusually high number of CEO departures.
- Bloomberg
Facebook Libra Payments Partners Waver on Cryptocurrency
(Bloomberg) -- Four payments companies that have joined Facebook Inc. as founding members of the Libra Association are wavering over whether to officially sign on to the cryptocurrency project, according to people familiar with the matter.Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Stripe Inc. are undecided about formally signing onto Libra’s organizing charter because they’re concerned about maintaining positive relationships with regulators who have reservations about the project, the people said.Executives at the payments companies believe Facebook oversold the extent to which regulators were comfortable with the project and are concerned about the perception the social network hasn’t behaved responsibly in other areas -- such as how it has handled user data and privacy, the people said.The Libra Association is asking the 28 founding members to reaffirm their commitment to the cryptocurrency project later this month, according to three people familiar with the matter. Before Libra was unveiled, the companies signed nonbinding letters of intent to explore joining the association.David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading the Libra effort, tweeted Wednesday that the “[first] wave of Libra Association members will be formalized in the weeks to come.” Marcus said he was unaware of any current Libra partners who might abstain from officially joining the organization, but building a new global currency is “hard and requires courage.”“I can tell you that we’re very calmly, and confidently working through the legitimate concerns that Libra has raised by bringing conversations about the value of digital currencies to the forefront,“ he added.Companies that officially join the charter won’t be obligated to immediately contribute an initial $10 million required to invest in the project, according to two of the people. The option to delay the payment reflects the association’s strategy to move the Libra project forward in baby steps, the people said. That would give members more time to work out how their participation might affect the rest of their companies’ operations and regulatory obligations, they said.The signing of the charter could take place as soon as Oct. 14, three people said, and will likely happen in Switzerland, where the nonprofit organization charged with managing the Libra digital currency reserve and global payments network would be headquartered.“Nothing has changed with our involvement with Libra since we came on to participate,” said a Stripe spokesman. “We agreed to work on the charter with these other participants. We continue to work on the charter. We’re still actively involved.” He declined to comment specifically on whether Stripe has hesitations about signing the charter.Spokesmen for Facebook, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and the Libra Association declined to comment.The move to get Libra members to formally sign on is the latest indication that Facebook and its partners are pushing forward with the controversial plan, even after it came under fire from policy makers around the world.Facebook has said repeatedly that the Libra Association will be responsible for making decisions about the currency, so its formal creation could mean that regulators start to get better answers than Facebook has offered so far.Some European finance ministers have threatened to ban Libra in their respective countries and the European Union’s antitrust chief says she’s taken the unusual step of scrutinizing Libra because of the risk it could lead to the creation of a new, entirely separate economy.Meanwhile, development of the technology to underpin Libra is moving faster than internal deadlines, Diogo Monica, co-founder of Anchorage, a technology company that safeguards cryptocurrencies, said in a phone interview. Five association members including Anchorage and Facebook’s digital wallet subsidiary Calibra are already running a test network of nodes, and sending transactions -- not done with real money for now -- to each other, he said.Libra has started addressing regulators’ concerns by making tweaks to its technology and policies, such as its anti-money-laundering policies, Monica added. Hundreds of organizations are on a waiting list hoping to join the association, Monica said, but no additional members have been admitted yet, he said.Opponents of the plan say Libra, which would be backed by a pool of traditional currencies, could undercut countries’ monetary policies or be used for nefarious purposes. U.S. lawmakers this summer grilled Marcus, questioning whether Facebook could be trusted to expand into financial services. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg last month told senators that the currency wouldn’t launch anywhere in the world without U.S. regulators’ blessing.Facebook announced the project in June to make international payments as simple as texting. It draws on big names in the payments, technology, telecom and blockchain industries, including EBay Inc., Uber Technologies Inc., blockchain startups Coinbase Inc. and Xapo Inc., and Vodafone Group Plc, as well as venture capital companies and non-profit organizations.Why Everybody (Almost) Hates Facebook’s Digital Coin: QuickTakeEven as Facebook has publicly drawn fire, the Libra organization’s members have worked in the background to hash out details of a chartering document to formally establish the non-profit so that the group’s work to stand up the payments system can move forward.The work has proven contentious due to continued uncertainty about the regulatory implications of the project, according to two of the people.“Since June the Association has met with numerous regulators and policy makers,” said Dante Disparte, a spokesman for the Libra Association, in an email. “Additionally the group of founding members have held regular meetings to discuss appropriate regulatory requirements for operating a payment system, as well as conforming to anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism, privacy and other standards.”(Updates with comment from the Libra Association in the last paragraph.)\--With assistance from Olga Kharif and Kurt Wagner.To contact the reporters on this story: Lydia Beyoud in Arlington at lbeyoud2@bloomberg.net;Joe Light in Washington at jlight8@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
France Wants to Harvest Facebook Data to Catch Tax Fraudsters
(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to give tax authorities the power to harvest data from Facebook, Instagram and other social media to help detect fraud.The government wants parliament to include an article in the 2020 budget law granting the new powers to officials from the tax and customs administrations. The state will also screen online market places like EBay Inc., Vinted, or Le Bon Coin as part of a trial program that is slated to run for three years.“This is not about searching your personal data,” Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said on LCI television Wednesday. “This is about some people who are trying to dodge taxes.”He said the government was ready to see the article amended by lawmakers but he hopes it will be maintained.Macron’s administration is pushing ahead with the plan despite the objections of the national privacy regulator. The Paris-based organization said on Sept. 30 that the plan marks a step change in the government’s use of personal data.“This mechanism presents very particular challenges from the point of view of freedoms, given the impact of the mechanism on privacy and its possible effects on freedom of expression online,” it said.France is not the first country to screen social media for tax reasons. In 2018, the U.K. authorities started to gather internet data for the same purposes.Under the French plan, data will initially remain on state servers for 30 days and will be retained for up to a year where there is a suspicion of fraud, the government said Tuesday.France’s National Assembly will start reviewing the budget law on Oct. 14.To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Geraldine AmielFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
PayPal (PYPL) vs. Square (SQ): Which Fintech Stock is a Better Buy?
Everyone from Google to Apple is expanding within fintech. So is now the time to buy PayPal (PYPL) or Square (SQ) stock on the dip?
- Bloomberg
FCC’s Gutting of Obama-Era U.S. Net Neutrality Rules Upheld
(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to gut Obama-era “net neutrality” rules, handing a victory to broadband providers and a loss to companies that rely on the internet to reach consumers.The court in a 3-0 decision ratified the FCC’s 2017 reversal of the earlier rules, even as the judges eased the path for states to issue their own rules.The decision assures more struggles over net neutrality, a policy of treating web traffic equally that has moved from tech jargon to cultural touchstone, with TV personalities such as John Oliver jumping into the debate.The FCC claimed a win. Its Republican majority led by an appointee of President Donald Trump in 2017 voted to kill rules that required broadband providers such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. to treat all web traffic equally.“Today’s decision is a victory for consumers, broadband deployment, and the free and open internet,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “The court affirmed the FCC’s decision to repeal 1930s utility-style regulation of the internet imposed by the prior administration.”Net-neutrality supporters seized on a part of the ruling that will permit states to come up with their own internet regulations.“It is clear that the fight over net neutrality is just beginning,” Andrew Jay Schwartzman, an attorney for challengers to the FCC rule, said in an email. “The FCC can try to fix its mistakes, but the court made it clear that the commission cannot block states from passing their own net neutrality statutes and issuing executive orders.”Tuesday’s ruling is a win for the broadband industry and a setback for companies that rely on the internet for distributing their content, including Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and the likes of Netflix Inc. and EBay Inc. They had feared that internet service providers could slow their content to favor business partners.“The court got it right,” Jonathan Spalter, president of the USTelecom trade group with members including AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., said in an emailed statement. “The FCC’s 2017 order restored the smarter, more nimble, pro-consumer and bipartisan policy framework.”NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, was “gratified” with the ruling, Michael Powell, president of the trade group, said in an emailed statement. Members of the group include Comcast, one of the largest U.S. broadband providers.Video GamesThe Internet Association will “continue to fight for nationwide, strong, enforceable net neutrality protections,” Michael Beckerman, president of the trade group with members including Google, Facebook, Twitter Inc., and Uber Technologies Inc., said in an emailed statement.“This ruling fails to ensure a fair and open internet for video game players and all internet users,” Stanley Pierre-Louis, president of the Entertainment Software Association, said in an email. Pierre-Louis pointed out that the ruling “opens the door to state action.”The FCC and broadband providers may defeat state broadband regulation later, in this case or in related lawsuits, Matthew Schettenhelm, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said in a note.Judges in Tuesday’s decision indicated they were loath to set the communications industry, and the nation, on a different regulatory course yet again. The rules took effect last year.“We decline to yet again flick the on-off switch” of heavier regulation, the court said in its opinion.Critics said the new regulatory regime adopted under Pai invited predatory behavior, while broadband providers said competition would prevent abuses. Opponents of the new rules were the web software developer Mozilla Corp., the streaming video service Vimeo and a coalition of governments including New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and Santa Clara County, California.At issue was whether Pai correctly decided to treat broadband internet as a lightly-regulated information service, subject only to Federal Trade Commission consumer protection-style oversight. Two years earlier, the agency’s prior leadership declared broadband was a form of telecommunications.The panel was comprised of Obama appointees Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, and Senior Judge Stephen Williams, a Ronald Reagan-nominee and the lone judge who voted to strike down “net neutrality” as part of a prior panel in 2016.The judges issued one unified opinion, unsigned by any one of them, accompanied by three separate ones, where they elaborated on their concerns and the reasons for their conclusions.Millett in a concurring opinion said she sided with the FCC with “substantial reservation” and was bound by a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that gave the agency discretion to classify cable modem connections.“I am deeply concerned that the result is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service,” Millett wrote. She and Wilkins said either the Supreme Court or Congress need to take up the issue.Williams dissented on the part of the ruling that allows states to set policy. He said that the internet can’t be divided into state markets, and that state actions “would frustrate an agency’s authorized policy.”The judges told the FCC to reconsider portions of its decision about implications of its rule for public safety, the regulation of attachments to telephone poles, and concerns about telecommunications subsidy programs.Both sides said they want Congress to step in. So far lawmakers have been unable to agree, and there are few indications legislation might succeed soon.(Updates with reaction beginning in 10th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Susan Decker.To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net;Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, ;David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth WassermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
