The partnership between eBay and PayPal officially ends next month after eBay's board of directors agreed on the completion of separation of both businesses. After July 17, eBay and PayPal will act as two independent publicly traded companies and the first day of regular trading, as distinct companies, will be on July 20, according to an official press release.
Following the official split of the companies, eBay stockholders expect to receive one share of PayPal common stock for every share of eBay common stock held as of July 8. Subject to the agreement of the terms and conditions, the dissemination of PayPal common stock will happen on July 17. PayPal will trade under the ticker "PYPL" on the stock market, while eBay will continue to transact under the ticker "EBAY."
As a global commerce leader, eBay is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary in September. The company has been a busy marketplace that connects 157 million active buyers and 25 million active sellers globally. Last year, eBay produced $8.8 billion in revenue.
Supporting 10 million merchants worldwide, PayPal is one of the most trusted digital wallet brands. The company handled one billion mobile transactions and processed $235 billion in payment volume across 165 million active customer accounts and generated $8 billion in revenue in 2014.
Many business analysts considered it an awkward partnership when eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002. Initially seen to increase PayPal transactions through eBay's auction participants, the result of the merger has not been beneficial aside from pushing traffic. When eBay announced the upcoming split of the companies in September, its shares immediately soared by more than 7 percent in hours after the news.
"eBay and Paypal are two great, special businesses. As separate, independent companies, eBay, led by Devin Wenig, and PayPal, led by Dan Schulman, will each have a sharper focus and greater flexibility to pursue future success in their respective global commerce and payments markets," stated John Donahoe, eBay's CEO and President. He plans to step down as the company's top executive and will join one or both of the boards of the two newly separated companies after the tax-free spinoff in July.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
