Investor Carl Icahn has withdrawn his demand for eBay Inc. (EBAY) to spin off PayPal. Now, he wants 20% of PayPal to be offered to the public. PayPal is the online payment service of eBay.
eBay Inc. disclosed in their 4th quarter fiscal 2013 (4QFY13) earnings that Carl Icahn has a 2.2% stake in the company. He had nominate two individuals to the board of directors and he has aggressively pushed for a spinoff of PayPal. He said eBay was hindering PayPal's growth, and said that they are damaging its competitiveness against current and potential rivals, that includes Apple and Google Inc.
However, eBay reiterated that the success of both eBay and PayPal depend entirely upon each other’s success, and that they were better off together. The war of words and mudslinging between them is still continuing.
eBay has also reacted strongly to Icahn’s accusations about bad corporate governance and the integrity of the board and has rejected his nominees.
Icahn said that PayPal and eBay should maintain close business ties, while forming independent boards. "EBay's 80% ownership of PayPal, and a commercially advantageous long-term contract between the two companies, would preserve any potential synergies," he said.
eBay replied: "We're glad to see that Mr. Icahn now seems to agree that a full separation of PayPal is not a good idea."
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