This has been a long time coming: eBay Inc is spinning off its online payment business PayPal as a separate publicly traded company in 2015. eBay informs that its board of directors approved this plan after a strategic review of the company’s growth strategies and structure. It mentions that keeping eBay and PayPal together beyond 2015 is "less advantageous" to both its online marketplace and payments business strategically and competitively. The company expects to complete this spin-off in the second half of 2015, subject to market and regulatory conditions and it will be led by eBay Inc. President & CEO John Donahoe and eBay CFO Bob Swan. This includes figuring out the right management and capital structures for both eBay and Paypal and putting appropriate operating agreements in place. Neither Donahoe nor Swan will have an executive management role in the new eBay and PayPal companies. Former American Express president to lead Paypal: In line with announcement, eBay has appointed Dan Schulman as the president of PayPal effective immediately and CEO-designee of standalone Paypal after separation. Schulman was previously working as the president of American Express's Enterprise Growth Group. He's also held senior executive and CEO roles at AT&T, Priceline and Virgin Mobile. Carl Icahn's Spin-off proposal: This spin-off is quite interesting since Donahoe had rejected a similar proposal from investor Carl Ichan in January this year and the company followed it up with a detailed explanation on why this spin off doesn't make sense. In addition, eBay had also sent a letter to its shareholders explaining why eBay and PayPal are better together in March this year. How things change in just five months. Will…
