The mobile wallets landscape shifted Tuesday, as eBay announced plans to spin off PayPal. Analysts mostly applauded the move, and eBay (EBAY) stock rose 7.5% to a six-month closing high of 56.63. EBay said it expects to complete the spinoff of PayPal into a separate publicly traded company in the second half of 2015. It was a victory for activist investor Carl Icahn, among those who had pushed for the change. “The split is good,”
EBay’s PayPal and others with a head start in online payments might see Apple’s thrust into mobile payments whittle away their advantage, says Mercator Advisory Group. Besides eBay (EBAY) — which early Tuesday announced that it would spin off payments unit PayPal next year — those facing a testier future because of Apple’s (AAPL) emergence in mobile payments include Google (GOOGL) and Softcard, the partnership of wireless firms AT&T (T), Verizon
PayPal’s profitability and the prospects it could be sold to a third party are among factors for investors to consider concerning eBay’s (EBAY) announcement early Tuesday that it will spin off its payments unit in the second half of 2015. So says Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, in a research report. “While there are clearly a number of unknowns related to the separation, we think an important component will be the