Internatinal Internet Business
"PayPal Company"
PayPal was originally established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for handheld devices. It had no success with that business model, however, so switched its focus to a digital wallet.The first version of the PayPal electronic payments system was launched in 1999.
In March 2000, Confinity merged with X.com, an online banking company founded by Elon Musk.Musk was optimistic about the future success of the money transfer business Confinity was developing.Musk and Bill Harris, then-president and CEO of X.com, disagreed about the potential future success of the money transfer business and Harris left the company in May 2000. In October of that year, Musk decided that X.com would terminate its other internet banking operations and focus on PayPal.That same month, Elon Musk was replaced by Peter Thiel as CEO of X.com, which was renamed PayPal in 2001 and went public in 2002. PayPal's IPO listed under the ticker PYPL at $13 per share and generated over $61 million.