The New York Times reports that eBay is considering making PayPal the only form of payment allowed on eBay auctions. The company is test marketing this concept in Australia starting next month, and loyal eBay buyers and sellers there are furious.

eBay's stranglehold on internet auction enthusiasts is already clear. It is the most popular auction site, and if you're a seller, you have few other choices that get you as much exposure. But that's not enough for eBay. In addition to all the fees generated from auction listings and sales, they apparently want to ensure that they'll get extra fees from the payments if they require everyone to pay with PayPal.

Company officials say this move is an effort to cut down on fraud. They say that by requiring the use of PayPal, they are able to see buyers and sellers through the payment process, rather than them risking fraud through the use of outside payment services.

If nothing else... eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) users are a feisty bunch. After just coming off a multi-week sellers strike, they are already planning their next revolt, tentatively set to launch May 1.

The most recent strike was orchestrated in reaction to recent changes made on the site and lasted from the week of Feb. 18 through last night. While eBay is steadfast that the recent site boycott had no effect on its business, not everyone is buying that, and are anticipating hitting the site again come May.

Some statistics have shown that eBay witnessed a 13% drop in its online listings, but eBay denies any impact. The site claims that the statistics out there are not taking into account a 20-cent listings promotion that it had launched just prior to the boycott that temporarily inflated its auction listings.

These are definitely some interesting times for e-commerce mega site eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). In the past few weeks, the site has been under attack from some of its sellers who have launched a strike against the site in response to recent changes. While eBay denies any impact from the strike, there are some out there who just aren't buying it.

At the root of the current situation are changes made by eBay over the past month that have left its users frustrated to say the least. The core reason for the frustration relates to eBay's decision to lower its listing fees but at the same time raise its final sale fees. This is being seen as a direct slap in the face to the site's more successful sellers. Also adding to the current resentment is the decision to hold certain PayPal payments by up to 21 days in an effort to fight fraudulent activity on the site. As if those two things were not enough, the site went forward in changing its practice of allowing sellers to leave negative feedback on buyers.

As you can imagine, sellers were not happy and launched a sellers' strike that they hoped would convince the company to roll back their changes. Depending on who you listen to, the strike has either had a significant impact on auction listings, or no effect whatsoever.

Last week I wrote a couple pieces on the current seller strike over at e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). The strike was supposed to last until today, but now it has been extended another week. Initial data is showing that the current eBay strike has lowered the items listed for sale on the site by an impressive 13%, so you can be sure that eBay is paying attention.

As most of you are already aware, the current strike is the result of frustrations by eBay users over a couple new changes that the site has introduced. While the site lowered its initial listing fees for items, it raised its completion fees. This has been seen by power sellers as a direct attack on the more successful eBay sellers. In addition, eBay has decided to keep sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers, a move that has infuriated sellers who claim that feedback is their best defense in avoiding dead-beat bidders. The final straw came in the decision to hold certain PayPal payments for up to 21 days.

The strike, which started last week, has had a couple of impacts on the e-commerce world. One result that I examined last week, was the increase in traffic and users to some smaller e-commerce sites that historically have had a hard time breaking into some of eBay coveted traffic. Now we are starting to see just how hard the strike has been hitting eBay itself. According to reports, the site has seen a 13% drop in its auction listings.

If you are one of the upset eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) sellers who has decided to boycott the popular e-commerce site this week, don't think that you have to lose a whole week's worth of business. eBay's competitor Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) is looking to reel in your business.

In case you missed it, eBay has definitely been ruffling the feathers of its users with the company's newly announced rate changes, and its sellers have decided to join forces and boycott the site all this week. Well, one site's misfortune could be another site's gain, as Overstock.com is trying to lure in disgruntled eBay users by offering them up to 50% off initial listing fees all this week.

While Overstock is officially claiming that the promotion falling during the eBay strike was just a coincidence, you really have to wonder how much truth there is in that. With eBay users showing their disgust over the new fee schedule this wekk, it seems like perfect timing for competitor Overstock.com to jump in and offer such a hefty discount. You can find more of the promotional offer details as laid out on the overstock website.

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced this morning that its PayPal unit is buying Fraud Sciences Ltd. for $169 million. Fraud Sciences is a company based out of Tel Aviv, Israel, and the deal is expected to be finalized within the next 30 days.

While eBay has not made any comments on how the acquisition would impact its 2008 numbers, it should help to reduce some concerns over eBay fraud, and possibly increase the number of transactions for the struggling company. The tools and analytics that Fraud Sciences will bring are expected to help enhance fraud management on both eBay and PayPal.

Users have had two main complaints about eBay recently: high fees and high fraud risk. The company said last week that it would be announcing a new fee schedule shortly to address the first concern. With today's news, the online auctioneer is addressing the second main concern.

As Meg Whitman's tenure as CEO is coming to a close, new CEO John Donahoe is definitely not wasting any time trying to bring the old eBay back to life. Just how successful Donahoe will be at restoring confidence in its long time customer base remains to be seen, but for sure he has taken two big steps in the right direction.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer

When we took a look at eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY)'s fourth-quarter earnings last night, we also made note that long-time CEO Meg Whitman would be stepping down, to be replaced by John Donahoe. We wondered what changes Mr. Donahoe would be bringing to his new position, and some of those answers have come quicker than we expected, as Donahoe has already announced a few changes that we can expect to see.

One thing consistently on the mind of eBay users is the website's fee structures. Since last year, users have been openly voicing their disappointment with what they consider to be abnormally high selling fees, and it seems like Donahoe will quickly look to address these concerns.

Donahoe said that within a few weeks, we will be seeing a brand new fee structure from eBay. In response to what users are demanding, eBay is planning to lower its upfront listing fees, but at the same time will be raising final selling fees. These final fees are only paid once an item has been successfully sold, and I am sure that users will not like to hear this too much, but they should be happy to hear that the initial listing fees are going to be reduced.

E-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) will be reporting its fourth-quarter numbers this Wednesday, and analysts are looking for a strong quarter from the company, but then again, the fourth quarter has typically always been strong for the company. What analysts will most likely be more interested in, even more so than fourth-quarter numbers, will be the company's 2008 outlook.

For the fourth quarter, the company is expected to show earnings of 41 cents per share. For its fourth quarter 2006, the company only showed 31 cents per share, so if it were to report 41 cents for its most recent fourth quarter, we will be seeing earnings growth of slightly over 32 percent year over year, but will that be enough to bring buyers into EBAY shares?

2008 should prove to be a very pivotal year from eBay, which is struggling to get its auction business back on the right track. One thing that we could see this week is eBay announcing that it will be lowering its "insertion" fees. These are fees that the company charges its users to list items, and would lift the commission that users receive for selling their goods.

MarketWatch writer Dan Gallagher offered a brief synopsis of comments by Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck in reaction to Peck's January 17 upgrade of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). In my opinion, Gallagher was too kind with his writing. Peck's comments are a weak attempt to cloud perceptions, nothing more. Let's take a look at some of those words, shall we?

In using a pendulum metaphor, Peck refers to eBay investors as being either greedy or fearful. I believe that to mean he thinks investors who sold in the $40 range were greedy and investors who are now resisting the $30 mark live in fear. I give more credit to the investors in their reaction to issues we've discussed. Mr.Peck seems to think they've overreacted on both ends.

Robert Peck offered the statement that, "eBay's issues have been overly accounted for" as if eBay's issues comprise a tangible, one time composite. I'll tell you as fact that eBay's negative issues are active and on going. You've read the news and I think you sense that there's much pressure coming in. Amazon clipped eBay's holiday season page views. Ticket selling competitors are on the prowl. Skype still flounders without declared intent and Meg Whitman is now toying with exit plans.

Peck concedes that eBay could be affected by changes in consumer spending due to recession but he would like us to believe that increased bargain hunting will offset possible negative affects. What he doesn't mention is that a bargain binge could deeply affect the bottom line of PayPal, eBay's lion-hearted revenue generator. We must also not forget that a checkout service has taken hold via Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and now we're hearing whispers of increased payment services from Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has always been at the forefront of making purchasing from its ubiquitous website as easy as possible. From the early days of one-click shopping, the retailer has made the process of buying merchandise super easy.

Well, it just got easier for those who want to purchase products but have no desire to pay for them immediately.

The world's largest e-tailer signed an agreement with Bill Me Later Inc. to let customers purchase products and be billed for them at a later date. In an interesting twist, Amazon.com also purchased an equity stake in Bill Me Later as well, although the size of the stake is not known.

With the enormous reach of Amazon.com has, is this payment alternative needed? From an economic standpoint, yes. Any payment avenue Amazon.com offers just makes it that much easier to increase sales to a contingent of customers who want a huge array of payment options (for better or worse). The Bill Me Later deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008 and should be available as a payment option at Amazon.com shortly thereafter.

Any savvy eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) seller will tell you that oftentimes items sell better together. For instance, a set of 1959 Topps baseball cards would likely fetch more than the individual cards.

But other times, especially in the case of items that aren't really related, you'll get more listing them separately. For instance, The Backstreet Boys new CD probably wouldn't sell well packaged with Kurt Cobain's Journals.

Given the wide variety of business that eBay now has under its umbrella -- Skype, PayPal. StubHub, and others -- some are suggesting that it might be time for eBay to split itself up, or at least divest a few non-core assets. According to The Wall Street Journal [subscription]:

So why aren't investors giving eBay proper credit? Ms. Whitman's big $3.1 billion purchase of Skype and subsequent need to write-down that business's value left a lingering impression that she is an empire builder. One way to show that isn't the case would be to push some of eBay's businesses out of the tent.

PayPal might find independence handy. Rivals Amazon or Google might reconsider their aversion to using Paypal's services if it wasn't run by a competitor. Spinning it off or selling a stake in a public offering also might reduce the conglomerate discount attached to eBay. Selling may not be as fun as shopping, but it usually is more lucrative.

But The Journal already summed up the problem: All the indications would seem to be that Meg Whitman is an empire-builder, making any strategic changes unlikely without outside pressure.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is one of several companies at the center of the global payments revolution. Around for almost a half-century, electronic payment by credit card (and by its companion, the debit card) started to gain momentum in the 1990s when technological advances enabled more small shops and vending machines to accommodate the cards. Once cost prohibitive, it's now commonplace for customers to swipe cards at drug stores, theaters, in parking garages, and even in taxi cabs.

Analysts see strong growth in the electronic payments sector, and MasterCard is in an enviable position to grab a substantial portion of that business. Analysts see MA's revenue advancing by at least 15% for 2007-2009. Further, analysts see ample opportunities for international expansion: the electronic payments business is in its infancy, a fact that will help offset likely price competition in transaction fees. The Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for MA are $5.44/$6.59.

The risks? Rival technologies and payment systems, such as PayPal, pose a significant threat, as do e-check systems. Each is likely to increase its market share in the decade ahead. Still, the pie is expanding at such a high rate that MasterCard will likely shine in the sector, moving forward.

If you back out the painful losses from its ill-advised Skype purchase, eBay posted some pretty impressive earnings numbers today for the 3rd quarter of 2007. EPS of $.41 well exceeded the market expectations of $.33 on an operating income of $593 million and net revenues of $1.89 billion, an increase over same quarter of '06 of 30%. The company also purchased back almost 15 million shares during the quarter.

With the Skype fallout included, however, the picture was less rosy. GAAP operating income was in the red by $938 million, for a loss of 69 cents. However, the company told the Wall Street Journal (subscription) that that it does not anticipate having any future charges related to Skype to sully future earnings reports.

eBay credits strong performance by its PayPal program, StubHub, and advertising businesses for the stronger than expected performance. The market responded with a late surge, driving the stock up to close at $40.60, an increase of 5.18% for the day.

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage

Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are partnering up this holiday season to try and keep all those nasty but legit-looking email messages out of your Yahoo! Mail inbox. Yahoo! is by far the world's most popular web-based email service and I can only imagine the effort it takes to sniff out fraudulent and phishing email messages from tens of millions of inboxes every day.

In many cases, Yahoo! Mail users will receive official-looking messages that appears to come from eBay or its online payment division, PayPal. Those who are fooled into divulging personal information like passwords and account sign-in information usually have a large headache cleaning up the identity theft mess later. But, what if those unofficial email messages never arrived in your inbox to begin with?

Last last week, the three companies (PayPal is a wholly-owned eBay subsidiary) announced that the DomainKeys e-mail authentication system would be used to block malicious email messages from the inboxes of Yahoo! Mail users. Yahoo! stated that the upgrade would occur over its global email network for the next few weeks, allowing it to verify the domain from which email messages arrive. In other words, those Russia-based fraud emails that look like real eBay communications may soon be blocked for good.

This is a great initiative between the largest email provider and one of the largest commerce sites on the entire internet, and it's perfectly timed for the holiday e-commerce season that's already underway. Now, Yahoo! needs to market this new partnership in every way possible to let customers know what it is and how it can help them. Something like this does no deserve to be just working behind the scenes.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Sprint Nextel Corporation's (NYSE: S) investors are unhappy, and led by the activist investor Ralph Whitworth, are voicing their displeasure with chairman and CEO Gary Forsee and the company's board, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• Merrill Lynch and Company (NYSE: MER) has fired several top executives as a result of the fallout from the credit crunch, The Financial Times reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Associated Press reported that members of the United Automobile Workers union at two General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) locals have approved the union's tentative contract agreement with GM, local union officials said Wednesday.
• Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) has been ordered by a Delaware court to provide confidential information about its stock-granting practices to a Louisiana-based police pension fund that has invested in Countrywide, reported the Los Angeles Times.

WEBSITES:

• According to the Register, Alvarion Ltd (NASDAQ: ALVR) and Redline Performance Products (NASDAQ: REDL) are considered the most likely WiMAX companies to be acquired by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), but Airspan Networks (NASDAQ: AIRN), Aperto, and Navini have also been mentioned as possible acquisitions for the Internet networking giant.
• CNet.com reported that Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) is upgrading its e-mail system starting today with technology designed to block phishing, spam, and other fraudulent e-mails that look like they come from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and PayPal, but actually don't.