eBay is to spin off its payment business PayPal to create two standalone publicly traded companies by the end of 2015. eBay says that ‘the pace of industry change and innovation in commerce and payments requires maximum flexibility to stay competitive and drive global leadership’. eBay bought PayPal for $1.5bn in 2002 and for much of that decade provided the bulk of PayPal’s payment volume. However PayPal has grown rapidly in recent years and now has more than 152 million active registered accounts and its revenue for this year is expected to be around $7.2bn.
