Amazon Cuts Ties with Bill Me Later, still holds equity stake.On Dec. 31st, 2008, (to no one's surprise) Amazon removed Bill Me Later as a payment option from it's website. PayPal purchased BillMeLater in October for $945 million and Amazon had invested in them almost a year earlier.
According to the The GreenSheet, "Amazon's statement offered no explanations; it simply said, "Bill Me Later will no longer be accepted as a payment method on Amazon. However, all sales and orders processed with Bill Me Later prior to the sunset date will continue to be processed." More than 1,000 online stores, catalogs and travel sites currently offer BML as a payment method they said.
In December of 2007, Amazon took and equity stake in Bill Me Later which competed with PayPal's Pay Later Service. The way Bill Me Later works is you enter your birth date and last four digits of your social security number online, and it does a credit check on you in three seconds to determine whether you are worth the risk. Bill Me Later pays the merchant, and sends you a bill.
I imagine that Amazon will sell it's stake in BML but as of yet, no announcement has been made.
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