Mergers that are announced in January typically get started the prior September.

We really started our rollout after September 30.

Typically January is our coldest month. It's definitely been a bit above normal.

This isn't new. We announced a Safe Payments Policy back in October 2005, and began implementing it in January 2006. It governs the types of payments services that sellers can market in their listings. Of course, due to the nature of eBay being a marketplace, we can't monitor or control how buyers and sellers actually complete payments and transactions.

These kinds of rumors are not surprising given the number of large utility mergers announced lately.

This is most serious assault on the dollar since January. This feels different.