Activist investor Carl Icahn is trying a new tack in his battle
with eBay Inc. over the future of its payments unit PayPal: a
partial spinoff.
In a notice on his website Wednesday, Mr. Icahn called on eBay
to sell 20% of PayPal to the public, while keeping the remaining
stake. "Before the transaction is consummated the companies could
enter into a long-term, commercially viable contract, preserving
all synergies," said Mr. Icahn, who holds a roughly 2% stake in
eBay.
"A 20% IPO of PayPal could allow for all of the benefits of an
independent PayPal, preserves all of the benefits of keeping PayPal
in-house and could be structured so as to be tax free to
shareholders," he said.
An eBay spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment. eBay has said the company is better off with PayPal as a
full subsidiary.
Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com
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