When billionaire Carl Icahn urged eBay Inc. to breakup last year, the company launched a review of its own but eventually heeded the advice of the legendary investor.
Now, Icahn has sold his shares in the e-commerce firm in the third quarter and switched to its spinoff PayPal Holdings Inc.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Icahn swapped his entire 46.3 million shares in eBay, worth around $2.8 billion, for the same number of shares in PayPal. As of Monday, his stake in PayPal now amounts to $1.65 billion.
Icahn, who has earned a reputation for purchasing large stakes in companies and pushing for changes in management, first became an investor in eBay in January 2014. He had urged the company to spin off its PayPal division but decided to back off from his push in April of last year.
After studying the payments landscape for six months, eBay officials decided to shift their stance on the split with PayPal in June.
eBay's stock had increased by as much as 11 percent by the time spin off was completed. PayPal, on the other hand, is considerably down following its debut.
Aside from PayPal, Icahn has reportedly taken a stake in American International Group (AIG) during the third quarter amounting to 1.36 million shares. He has since urged the insurance company to split into three individual companies.
In October, Icahn sent a letter to AIG's chief executive officer Peter Hancock, criticizing the company for being "too big to succeed," a variation of the famous "too big to fail" phrased that came about during the financial crisis.
While the extent of Icahn's position in AIG is yet to be disclosed, the legendary investor announced through a post on Twitter on Oct. 28 that he now owns a "large" portion of the insurance company.
