It will pay almost US$1 billion for U.S. online payment company Bill Me Later, and around $390 million in cash for the operator of two Danish classifieds sites, dba.dk and bilbasen.dk.

Bill Me Later is second only to PayPal, the online payment operator that eBay already owns, the company said. The two services complement one another, with Bill Me Later able to offer delayed payment or financing options to eBay customers using PayPal, it said.

EBay will pay $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding stock options. It expects to close the deal by the end of the year.

Today, PayPal serves primarily small and medium-size businesses, but the acquisition of Bill Me Later will allow the company to target larger customers, said PayPal President Scott Thompson in a conference call for investors.

PayPal's total payment volume reached $15 billion in the third quarter, eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said in the conference call. Its payment volume will soon exceed that of eBay's, with more than half of its transactions off eBay's site, he said.