The lawsuit was settled out of court for undisclosed terms. sued eBay and its PayPal subsidiary, which was a party in the deal, alleging breach of contract. The service was slated to launch in holiday season 2002.īut eBay decided to go with a service offered by Pitney Bowes Inc., a Stamford, Conn.-based postage machine company and ’s main competitor. The company was on the verge of a deal in 2002 that would have allowed eBay users to print postage using ’s technology. had tried to integrate its services with e-commerce in the past. He recently upgraded the company’s stock from “neutral” to “accumulate,” partly because of ’s marketing initiative to users of eBay and other e-commerce sites. “We’re big believers in online retail as a category, and obviously is positioning itself to capture a bigger part of it,” Sutton said. The numbers come from eMarketer Inc., a New York research firm.
Internet retail is projected to grow at a blistering pace, from about $132 billion in 2008 to almost $189 billion by 2011. The recession has been particularly tough for small businesses, which have cut back on services including ’s, said George Sutton, managing director at Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC in Minneapolis, who follows the company.Īs its core business has been squeezed, the company has tried to compensate by branching into a growth sector. The company’s annual net income also declined: In 2006, it reported a profit of $16.5 million compared with $10.2 million in 2008. The push could be an encouraging signs for shareholders, who have seen shares fall from a high of almost $39 in 2006 to about $9 recently. is using direct mail and Internet ads to reach them. Instead, it is trying to appeal to the individuals and small businesses that are heavy users of those sites, such as small manufacturers and retailers. does not have a deal with Amazon, eBay or other Web sites. Now we should see better penetration of our product into that market.” “The e-commerce area is one we haven’t tackled yet in terms of building better integration. “This is an evolution of our product,” said Chief Executive Ken McBride. It’s a significant step for, which has seen its stock price falter as its traditional market of small businesses has been crippled by the recession.
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