People don't call one an activist for nothing. Take it from activist inventor Carl Icahn, who previously made headlines after calling for a complete separation of PayPal and eBay.
Though he retreated and changed his mind thereafter, suggesting instead to eBay to simply sell 20 percent of its PayPal payments unit through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
"eBay would retain 80% of PayPal with control," investor Icahn, who has about two percent stake in PayPal, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, eBay expressed their appreciation on Icahn's change of mind. "We're glad to see that Mr. Icahn now seems to agree that a full separation of PayPal is not a good idea," the company said.
NASDAQ reported that eBay and PayPal created a 441 percent increase in investors' share price. The Wall Street Journal also disclosed that since Jan.22, eBay shares went up 5.8 percent. However, the shares went down nearly one percent on Wednesday.
Icahn, however, explained his points in the proposed spin-off. For instance, that it could bring about a rise in product offerings and improvements as well as attract top talent and potential acquisitions, all this without having to sacrifice eBay's benefits of keeping PayPal in-house.
Icahn also said that eBay and PayPal being currently combined makes it difficult for analysts and investors to assess the proper value and completely comprehend the core of its businesses. Keeping them at one also brings about "dissynergies" which become a burden to the companies. eBay's management earlier insisted though that there are "synergies," which can only exist when eBay and PayPal are one.
He also noted that with eBay and PayPal having each independent management team, along with new boards of directors - who could be "world-class" - would benefit the two companies. Such set-up would give utmost focus on creating the best strategic decisions with regard to the long-term growth of each business, he said.
He specified an example, saying if PayPal were a standalone business, it could pursue prospective strategic partnerships with other industry leaders such as Visa and MasterCard.
Icahn also took his letter as a channel to criticize board member Marc Andreessen, stating the latter's other current and possible investments to competitors. This, he said, seemed to show how Andreessen doesn't have eBay's best interests in mind.
The change of business tactics, or retreating, is not something new to the billionaire investor Icahn. Previously, he also gave up a fight of boosting Apple's share-repurchase program. It doesn't seem to harm him or his investments, though. He actually generated hundreds of millions of dollars in paper profits from his investment in Apple, among other investments.
