PayPal said on Thursday it acquired start-up Iron Pearl, bringing noted "growth hackers" Stan Chudnovsky and James Currier on board to help the online payments service expand more quickly. PayPal, part of eBay Inc, did not disclose a purchase price.PayPal is a dominant online payments service with more than 120 million users, but its growth has slowed in recent years and the company's new president, David Marcus, is looking for ways to revive that.Iron Pearl, a Silicon Valley start-up, analyzes data and develops computer models designed to drive the viral spread of products and services over the Internet, often across social networks such as Facebook Inc.This niche in the technology world is often called growth hacking, and PayPal's Marcus said on Thursday that Chudnovsky and Currier are among the leading growth hackers. Other top growth hackers include Chamath Palihapitiya, who helped drive Facebook's own rapid expansion, Marcus noted.
eBay Inc. is a global technology company that enables commerce through three reportable segments: Marketplaces, Payments, and GSI. Shares of EBAY traded higher by 0.84% or $0.48/share to $57.78. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $35.43 and as high as $57.58. On average, 11091300 shares of EBAY exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 6397289.
Shares of FB traded higher by 1.62% or $0.4475/share to $28.02. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $17.55 and as high as $45.00. On average, 51997100 shares of FB exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 31316778.
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