Paypal

Another North Coast community is on the EBay auction block. But if you want to own Carlotta, you'll really have to shake the piggy bank. The minimum bid is $1.07 million. About a month ago, the nearby town of Bridgeville was offered on EBay, a popular online auction site. The seller asked $770,000 -- but wound up making about $1 million more. Carlotta is on California 36 in Humboldt County, much closer to the coast and the city of Eureka than Bridgeville is.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook billionaire and tech mogul Sean Parker has a staff of hundreds and is spending millions to create a whimsical backdrop for his fairy-tale wedding in Big Sur to Alexandra Lenas, a source tells us. The total price tag could climb as high as $10 million, the person said. Nearly $9 million alone is going to building faux ruins, waterfalls, bridges and a gated cottage in Big Sur, according to TMZ.com. The stone dance floor in the woods surrounding the Ventana Inn & Spa will set the 34-year-old back $350,000.

PayPal, the online payment service owned by Internet auction company EBay Inc., has begun testing a new offering to allow people to make and receive payments using cellphones and other mobile devices. PayPal Mobile is being tested by EBay employees and will be available to the public in the U.S., Canada and Britain in the next few weeks, EBay spokeswoman Amanda Pires said.

When electric-car company Tesla Motors Inc. started selling its flagship Model S luxury hatchback earlier this year, it eschewed the traditional dealership network to open its own stores. But that's not sitting well with U.S. auto dealers, who have controlled new-vehicle sales for nearly a century. The nation's roughly 18,000 new-car dealers got a cut of every one of the 12.8 million new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year, from the biggest domestic sport-utility vehicle to the tiniest Japanese import.

Customers of the PayPal online payment service can now use their cellphones to instantly send money, buy items or donate to charities. Viacom Inc.'s MTV, the National Basketball Assn. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Inc. are among those already accepting PayPal Mobile service for payment, San Jose-based PayPal said. PayPal Mobile allows users in the U.S. and Canada to instantly transmit money by sending text messages.

Online payment service PayPal was inaccessible to users for three hours Friday morning because of technical problems, company officials said. The website was not functioning properly from 9 a.m. to noon because of problems with its database, PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said. No private data was compromised, said Pires, who called the service interruption "very rare" and "inconvenient." The company is investigating the issue, she said.

EBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, added Spanish, French and Chinese websites for its PayPal payment services unit to help boost its overseas sales and extend its lead over Google Inc.'s rival Checkout service. PayPal added service to 87 countries, including Cambodia, Greenland and Kazakhstan, San Jose-based EBay said in a statement. PayPal now serves 190 countries. Google, which started Checkout last year, said last month that it would not charge merchants any fees this year.

PayPal Inc. warned Monday that its popular online payment service is about to be shut down in Louisiana by banking regulators, casting another cloud over the firm's planned initial public stock offering. PayPal had hoped to sell 5.4 million shares at $12 to $14 apiece last week, but a patent infringement lawsuit filed by CertCo Inc. threatened to short-circuit the company's service. That prompted PayPal to delay the IPO until this week.

Online payment service PayPal Inc. infringed on patented methods of completing Internet transactions, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by a leading credit card issuer. First USA Bank, owned by Bank One Corp., alleged that PayPal is using technology protected by two of its patents.

EBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, agreed to pay $9.25 million to settle a 2002 class-action lawsuit by customers who alleged its PayPal e-mail payment service ignored complaints or didn't respond to inquiries in a timely fashion. EBay, which bought PayPal after the lawsuit was filed, set aside funds last year to pay for a settlement, the San Jose company said.