eBay Inc. (EBAY) has reached a deal to acquire Zong for $240 million in cash. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company provides mobile payments through carrier billing channels and has deals with more than 250 operators around the world.
eBay plans to combine bring Zong’s assets into PayPal to expand its mobile reach and hopes to win new business with the new team joining the fold.
Zong is currently available in 21 languages across 45 countries and PayPal counts more than 100 million active accounts and 9 million merchants worldwide. Zong enables wireless subscribers to enter their mobile phone numbers to make purchases on their mobile devices or computers. After Zong verifies the number, it fulfills payment on the customer’s account with their carrier.
“Commerce is changing. With mobile phones, we walk around with a mall in our pockets. PayPal helps to make money work better for customers in this new commerce reality — no matter how they want to pay or what device they’re using,” said Scott Thompson, president of PayPal. “We believe that Zong will strengthen this value by helping us reach the more than 5 billion people who have mobile phones, giving them more choice and security when they pay.”
As recently as two weeks ago, PayPal revised its projected mobile revenue for this year to $3 billion.