EBay says suspicious package proves harmless

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc said police have determined a suspicious package was harmless after the company evacuated a building at its corporate headquarters on Wednesday, a spokesman said.

"At approximately 12:30 p.m. PST today, local law enforcement authorities here determined that a suspicious package delivered to eBay's mailroom on the Hamilton Avenue campus was harmless," a company statement said.

The evacuated building, which houses 200 employees and includes the company's mailroom, is located at the online auction leader's headquarters in San Jose, California.

"One suspicious package was discovered. We immediately evacuated the mailroom," spokesman Hani Durzy said earlier.

EBay's corporate campus, which on a normal day houses 2,500 employees, remained open. Mailroom workers discovered the package at 8:55 a.m. PST (11:55 a.m. EST), and a police bomb squad disposal unit was called, Durzy said.

A little over a year ago, on Halloween night, October 31, an explosive device blew out a thick, plate-glass window at the Silicon Valley headquarters of PayPal, eBay's online payments unit.

Only a few dozen employees were at work in the building that evening, and no injuries were reported. A subsequent police investigation turned up no leads on who was responsible for the explosion, spokeswoman Catherine England said.

PayPal is located across San Jose from eBay headquarters.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Mark Porter/Jeffrey Benkoe)