(InfoWorld) - PayPal expects to accelerate the adoption of its online payment services in Europe now that it has obtained a banking license that will give it more freedom to market its services to merchants throughout the Continent.

The license, granted by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) in Luxembourg, kicks in July 2. As a result of obtaining the license, PayPal will move its European headquarters to Luxembourg from the United Kingdom, a PayPal spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Until now, PayPal has operated in Europe as an electronic money issuer, which prevented it from selling its services directly to merchants in individual countries due to regulatory restrictions. Instead, it has had to conduct its European sales efforts in cross-border fashion from the United Kingdom, she said.

PayPal's announcement comes about a month after rival Google launched the competing service Google Checkout for merchants in the United Kingdom and announced its intention to continue rolling it out to merchants in other countries. Previously, it had only been available to U.S. merchants. Launched in June 2006, Google Checkout is seen as a viable competitor for PayPal, which was founded in 1998 and acquired by eBay in 2002.

The new license notwithstanding, PayPal has no plans to offer traditional banking services in Europe, but intends to simply take advantage of its new status to become more aggressive in its direct sales operations, she said.

Despite what it considers a successful run in Europe so far, PayPal sees a big growth opportunity as demand for online payment services increases in the European Union, she said. PayPal began operating in Europe in 2004 and has about 35 million accounts and 100,000 Web sites there, she said.

PayPal, based in San Jose, Calif., doesn't have a banking license in the United States, where it instead operates as a licensed money transmitter on a state-by-state basis, she said.

(Jeremy Kirk in London contributed to this report.)

(InfoWorld) - Users running SAP applications on Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating systems will now be able to get joint maintenance and support under a program created by the companies.

In an announcement Tuesday, Novell and SAP launched the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Priority Support for SAP Applications program, offering a single support contact for everything from the operating system to applications. The goal: ease support costs and complexity for customers.

Available as of today from Novell, the support program will be integrated into the SAP Solution Manager application management infrastructure and SAP's global support network. Pricing was not announced.

"Customers want choice, and because most of them run heterogeneous IT environments, using both open-source and commercial software, we recognize the need to make service and support as smooth as possible," Gerhard Oswald, an SAP executive board member, said in a statement. "SAP has a long-standing commitment to the open-source community, including working with key technical standards organizations to create interoperability with commercial software.

"Our agreement with Novell makes it truly possible for companies to get long-term support and maintenance when deploying SAP applications on Linux and continues to illustrate the openness and flexibility of business process platforms enabled by SAP and focused on the business and technical standards that drive business process agility and innovation," Oswald said.

The two companies also said they are working together on other projects, including further optimization of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for other SAP application platforms, such as SAP NetWeaver and SAP Business Suite.

"This deal is an example of two industry leaders coming together on behalf of customers," Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell, said in a statement. "Both SAP and Novell have heard from our customers that they are looking for a complete stack solution, from the operating system up to the application, with an integrated source of technical support that will help them lower cost and reduce complexity."

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