New York Times:
EBay said on Tuesday that it would spin off its PayPal payments unit into a separate publicly traded company, taking a step the activist hedge fund magnate Carl C. Icahn first demanded nine months ago.
The move will cleave eBay almost in half, separating it from the payments processor it acquired 12 years ago and built into a giant that generates almost half of the company’s revenue.
The spinoff is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015. John Donahoe, eBay’s current chief executive, will step down from that role once the separation is complete.
Presumably, this will leave PayPal more nimble as it prepares to deal with the coming rollout of Apple Pay.
Heh, or presumably it leaves eBay without an albatross on it’s neck when Apple Pay grinds PayPal into dust. I was always a huge fan of the idea of PayPal, but the implementation (at least for me) has been total garbage. Looking forward to Apple’s version (i.e. usable).
What it will do is destroy what little good it has already and make both entities useless. But Carl Ichan will be richer. His quest to be the richest guy in the graveyard continues apace.
I for one beer liked basically being forced to accept credit cards via PayPal and having to pay so many fees to both PP and EB, despite being the same owner. They could have and should have leveraged synergy and passed the savings. They did not. Thus, consumers hate them both.
Never a good business model to make your customers hate you.
Ebay needs to get it mobile apps in order. Each update alienates users, with negative reviews piling up on the App Store.
It seems that they’re doing all they can to drive people to their website for full functionality, ease of use and of course ads. Lots of ads.
Not to mention increasing fees and ebay is biting the hand that feeds – people wanting to sell things.