Confinity
{{short description|Former American software company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Confinity
| logo = Confinity logo.png
| type =
| industry = Software industry
| fate = Merged with X.com
| successor = PayPal, Inc.
| founded = {{Start date and age|1998|12}}
| founders = Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek
| defunct = {{Start date and age|2000|03}}
| hq_location_city = Champaign County, Illinois
| hq_location_country = United States
| key_people =
| products = PayPal
| num_employees =
| num_employees_year =
| revenue =
| homepage =
}}
Confinity Inc. was an American software company based in Silicon Valley, best known as the creator of PayPal. It was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a PalmPilot payments and cryptography company.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/1999/07/paypal-puts-dough-in-your-palm/|title=PayPal Puts Dough in Your Palm|last=Lillington|first=Karlin|magazine=Wired|access-date=2017-04-10|language=en-US}}
Company
The company was launched in 1998 as Fieldlink and later renamed Confinity.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/86432398-4897-11e4-9d04-00144feab7de|title=Timeline: The rise of PayPal|first=Mark|last=Odell|website=Financial Times|date=30 September 2014|access-date=10 October 2023}} Many of Confinity's initial recruits were alumni of The Stanford Review, also co-founded by Thiel, and most early engineers hailed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited by Levchin.{{Cite web|url=https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/features/making-of-max-levchin|title=Max Levchin: The Making of a Tech Mogul|website=grainger.illinois.edu|access-date=2021-01-01|language=en}} Early investors included Nokia Ventures, Deutsche Bank, and William N. Melton, the founder of CyberCash.{{Cite web|url=http://plotkin.com/cnbcs029/|title=What I really want to say|website=plotkin.com|language=en|access-date=2017-04-10}}
Confinity's second office, 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, California, is also known for being the former office of Google and Logitech.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/a-building-blessed-with-tech-success/|title=A building blessed with tech success|work=CNET|access-date=2017-04-10|language=en}}
Confinity launched its milestone product, PayPal, in late 1999. Confinity merged with X.com, founded by Elon Musk, in March 2000.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh45igK4Esw Elon Musk: How I Became The Real 'Iron Man'], Bloomberg, 10 June 2014, accessed 25 August 2018. The merged company became known as X.com because this was thought to be a name with broader long-term potential than Confinity or PayPal. https://www.newspapers.com/image/753758455/?match=1&terms=x.com%20paypal
PayPal made an Initial Public Offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange on February 14, 2002.{{Cite web|title=PayPal IPO raises $70.2M - Feb. 14, 2002|url=https://money.cnn.com/2002/02/14/ipo/paypal/|access-date=2021-01-01|website=money.cnn.com}} The company was purchased by eBay in a $1.3 billion stock deal announced on July 8, 2002.{{Cite web|title=EBay Buys PayPal in $1.3B Stock Deal|url=https://www.paypalobjects.com/html/press/070802APEbayBuys.html|access-date=2021-01-01|website=www.paypalobjects.com}} eBay and PayPal became separate companies in 2015.{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ebay-divestiture-idUSKCN0HP13D20140930|title=EBay follows Icahn's advice, plans PayPal spinoff in 2015|date=2014-09-30|work=Reuters|access-date=2019-08-16|language=en}}