Earlier this week, eBay Inc. laid off 1,000 employees while announcing two acquisitions, including a $925-million deal for Bill Me Later, an online payments business.
What’s interesting – and why this post is appearing on AAN – is Bill Me Later’s connection to Nortel. Disclaimer: this interesting tale came via a comment so thanks for the insight.
The Bill Me Later story starts in 1999 when Nortel applies for a patent for a “system for facilitating e-commerce transactions includes a network including at least one subscriber, a virtual merchant, an authentication server, and a billing system associated with the network for obtaining payment from the subscribers.”
The inventors are John Shannon (currently CEO with 434 Wireless Inc.), Claude Bouffard (currently a senior team leader with Nortel’s metro Ethernet network business) and Peter Cellarius (currently VP, channel operations with Aruba Wireless). Note: Jim Somerville was involved in the original idea behind GoPin with Shannon and Bouffard.
The patents are spun off into a company called GoPin Inc.
In 2002, GoPin changes it name to I4 Commerce, which launches its first product, Bill Me Later, to give consumers a “convenient and secure alternative to paying credit card for purchases made through catalogs and Web sites.”
Last year, I4 Commerce changed its named again to Bill Me Later, which marks “the culmination of years of work building a leading alternative payment service for retailers and consumers.
A few days ago, Bill Me Later is snapped up by eBay. Amazon invested in Bill Me Later last year, while one of Bill Me Later’s biggest venture capital investors was Azure Capital Partners.
At this point, I’m not sure what happened to Nortel’s stake in GoPin or whether it still has an ownership interest in Bill Me Later. In any event, it’s an interesting example of how ideas and technology can emerge within a large business, and thrive by being spun off.
One of the things that has helped the Ottawa tech scene do well over the years is companies such as Nortel and Newbridge had been great places for people to gain experience before striking out on their own.
If anyone has more details on GoPin/Bill Me Later, or I’ve got some of the facts incorrect, let me know.
Update: You have to love it when a blog can beat the mainstream media – aka the Ottawa Citizen – to a great story by a whole day. Small victories.
there is always terrifc stuff coming out of Nortel. But this is an example of dud management. Nortel probably made $0 on this. Why? because they probably exited, gave up rights on the patents or could not monetize it.
Nortel had patents on fucntionality seen today in VOIP, iPhone, RIM email, touchscreen devices etc. I knew the guys in advanced tech who built prototypes. Nortel had iPhone technology in 1999.
Old school management was very much like Xerox, who invented point and click GUIs but never commercialized it - we all know where Apple and Microsoft took it.
Troy
Nortel is like a University. Great ideas, but operate like a Non Profit Organization.
Nortel’s Bill Me Later Connection
Earlier this week, eBay Inc. laid off 1,000 employees while announcing two acquisitions, including a $925-million deal for Bill Me Later, an online payments business.
What’s interesting – and why this post is appearing on AAN – is Bill Me Later’s connection to Nortel. Disclaimer: this interesting tale came via a comment so thanks for the insight.
The Bill Me Later story starts in 1999 when Nortel applies for a patent for a “system for facilitating e-commerce transactions includes a network including at least one subscriber, a virtual merchant, an authentication server, and a billing system associated with the network for obtaining payment from the subscribers.”
The inventors are John Shannon (currently CEO with 434 Wireless Inc.), Claude Bouffard (currently a senior team leader with Nortel’s metro Ethernet network business) and Peter Cellarius (currently VP, channel operations with Aruba Wireless). Note: Jim Somerville was involved in the original idea behind GoPin with Shannon and Bouffard.
The patents are spun off into a company called GoPin Inc.
In 2002, GoPin changes it name to I4 Commerce, which launches its first product, Bill Me Later, to give consumers a “convenient and secure alternative to paying credit card for purchases made through catalogs and Web sites.”
Last year, I4 Commerce changed its named again to Bill Me Later, which marks “the culmination of years of work building a leading alternative payment service for retailers and consumers.
A few days ago, Bill Me Later is snapped up by eBay. Amazon invested in Bill Me Later last year, while one of Bill Me Later’s biggest venture capital investors was Azure Capital Partners.
At this point, I’m not sure what happened to Nortel’s stake in GoPin or whether it still has an ownership interest in Bill Me Later. In any event, it’s an interesting example of how ideas and technology can emerge within a large business, and thrive by being spun off.
One of the things that has helped the Ottawa tech scene do well over the years is companies such as Nortel and Newbridge had been great places for people to gain experience before striking out on their own.
If anyone has more details on GoPin/Bill Me Later, or I’ve got some of the facts incorrect, let me know.
Update: You have to love it when a blog can beat the mainstream media – aka the Ottawa Citizen – to a great story by a whole day. Small victories.
Technorati Tags: bill me later, ebay, Nortel