PayPal IPO Bucks Trends -- Internet stocks may never return the high-flying days of a few years ago, but Internet transaction service PayPal bucked recent trends with its initial public stock offering last week. The stock opened at $13 and closed its first day of trading on the NASDAQ above $20, a 55 percent gain that left the company valued at over $1 billion. Despite that vote of confidence, PayPal is facing a patent infringement lawsuit and regulatory investigations from a number of states concerned that PayPal may be running afoul of banking regulations. PayPal also is by no means profitable, with a $107.8 million loss in 2001 on revenues of $104.8 million. Still, with 12.8 million customers and new ones arriving at a rate of over 18,000 per day, PayPal remains the leader in online transaction services - see "Worthy Web Sites: PayPal" in TidBITS-562). [ACE]

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