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PayPal VP Reid Hoffman walks into headquarters after negotiating a possible sale to eBay.

Everyone searches his face for clues.

Its early 2002, and PayPal, is running at full throttle.

It's also running out of time.

The company has been hauling in tons of new users, but its bottom line is Crimson.

The startup needs money, lots of it, and fast.

So that leaves PayPal with two options, an initial public offering, which could

rain more money on them, though that's far from guaranteed in this risky market,

or they could sell out to eBay.

Either way, PayPal is playing a game of beat the clock.

It has to do one or the other soon, or it could go under.

CEO Peter Teal breaks the tension.

Where do we stand, Reid?

Their final offer was $850 million.

Chief financial officer, Rola F. Bohta, strikes a hopeful note.

Well, that's $200 million more than our initial valuation.

I'm just noting that for context.

That's also a whole lot less than the $1 billion PayPal wanted.

Co-founder Max Levchin knows taking the offer is probably the safe bet, but no, he just can't

bring himself to go there.

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