eBay CEO親述爲何要拆分PayPal

Seven months after making the case against spinning off PayPal to Fortune, eBay CEO John Donahoe is singing a different tune.

eBay首席執行官約翰o多納霍曾經對《財富》（Fortune）表示公司不會拆分PayPal。七個月後的今天，他發表了不同的言論。

On Tuesday, eBay announced plans to spin-off online payments service PayPal into a separate, publicly traded company. Doing so, according to eBay, will help both businesses take advantage of new opportunities to grow in challenging markets.

近日，eBay宣佈了將在線支付業務PayPal拆分成一個獨立公開上市公司的計劃。根據eBay的說法，此舉將幫助雙方把握新的機遇，在競爭激烈的市場中繼續發展。

The move comes months after activist investor Carl Icahn waged a public campaign for a PayPal spin-off. Icahn, who owns 30.8 million shares of eBay and is expected to make $180 million from today’s news, argued PayPal would grow faster and therefore be more valuable if cleaved from its parent company. (In March, Donahoe made the case that eBay and PayPal were stronger businesses together.)

在活躍投資家卡爾o伊坎發起公開運動號召拆分PayPal後的幾個月，此舉終於變成了現實。伊坎擁有eBay 3,080萬股份，預計這個消息將使他淨入1.8億美元。伊坎曾表示，如果PayPal能脫離母公司獨立出來，將會發展得更快，價值也會更高。（多納霍則在今年3月稱eBay和PayPal在一起才更強大。）

But in an interview with Fortune on Tuesday, Donahoe, said the proxy fight earlier this year did not sway eBay’s board. Rather, the about-face came after a strategic review during a June board retreat that showed the split would benefit both companies.

但在接受《財富》採訪時，多納霍表示，今年早些時候的代理權之爭不會影響到eBay的董事會。在6月的戰略回顧會議上，董事會表示了退讓，改變了立場，證實兩大業務拆夥可能將對彼此都更爲有利。

“The synergies which helped fuel [PayPal's growth] are declining over time,” Donahoe said.

多納霍表示：“隨着時間的延續，有助於推動（PayPal發展）的協同效應正在不斷遞減。”

While eBay’s marketplace, the company’s core business, accounts for over 30% of PayPal’s annual revenues, Donahoe predicted that figure will dwindle to just 15% within three years. And while the marketplaces $9.9 billion in revenues last year eclipsed PayPal’s $7.2 billion, PayPal’s 19% annual revenue growth outpaced Marketplaces’ 10%. Because of that, Donahoe said PayPal has reached a size and scale where it is no longer in need of being tethered to its sister division.

儘管eBay的在線商城，也就是公司的核心業務，爲PayPal的年收入貢獻了超過30%的份額，但多納霍預計這一數值將會在三年內降至15%。eBay去年的業務收入99億美元，超過了PayPal的72億美元，但PayPal 的增長率爲19%，超過了eBay的10%。有鑑於此，多納霍表示，PayPal已經達到了足夠的規模，不再需要母公司的羈絆了。

“This was a very important decision, and we were not going to make it in a reactive way based on some external event,” said Donahoe, referring to the proxy fight earlier this year with Icahn. “What I have always tried to do and will always try to do is to do the right thing, to do the right thing for eBay and position eBay for the long-term.”

多納霍表示：“這是一個十分重要的決策。由於一些公司外的風波，我們不準備被動地推動這一進程。”他指的是今年早些時候與伊坎的代理權之爭。“無論是過去還是未來，我一直努力做正確的事情，爲eBay做正確的事情，爲eBay的長期發展找到合適的定位。”

Donahoe will step down from his CEO role after the spin-off is complete, which is expected in the second half of 2015. Devin Wenig, who is currently in charge of eBay’s online marketplace, will become CEO of the newly independent eBay while American Express executive Daniel Schulman is taking the helm at PayPal.

業務拆分預計將於2015年下半年完成，隨後多納霍將會離開首席執行官的崗位。目前負責eBay在線商城的德文o維尼格將成爲eBay獨立後的首席執行官，而前美國運通（American Express）的高管丹尼爾o舒爾曼將執掌PayPal。

Icahn is pleased with today’s news, regardless. In a statement, he said eBay’s board and management “have acted responsibly concerning the separation — perhaps a little later than they should have but earlier than we expected.”

無論如何，伊坎對這個消息十分滿意。在一份聲明中，他表示eBay的董事會和管理層“在考慮拆分問題時表現出了負責任的態度——也許他們的動作本來應該更快一些，但這也好於我們的預期了。”

“This is a positive, and the spin-off unlocks value,” Mark Mahaney, managing director and analyst for RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a report on Tuesday. But Ben Schachter, a Macquarie Capital analyst, argued the separate does little to address the challenges eBay and PayPal face vis-a-vis increasing competition.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場（RBC Capital Markets）的總經理兼分析師馬克o馬哈尼在報告中表示：“這是一個積極的舉措，拆分行動將釋放更多價值。”但麥格理資本（Macquarie Capital）的分析師本o沙赫特認爲，拆分在幫助eBay和PayPal應對日益激烈的競爭帶來的挑戰上，帶來不了什麼幫助。

EBay EBAY -1.08% competes with Amazon and an array of other online and bricks and mortar retailers. Meanwhile, PayPal faces off against upstarts like Square, Stripe and Apple’s new payment service, Pay.

eBay需要與亞馬遜（Amazon）以及一系列其他網絡和實體零售商展開競爭。與此同時，PayPal也面臨着來自Square、Stripe和Pay——後者是蘋果（Apple）新的支付服務——等後起之秀的壓力。

Schachter did say that the split-up does make it easier for the separate companies to make acquisitions and sign up partners.

但沙赫特也表示，拆分以後，兩個獨立的公司能夠更容易地進行併購和尋找合作伙伴。

When Donahoe steps down next year, he will have spent 10 years at eBay. Donahoe arrived in 2005, wooed by then-CEO and ex-Bain & Company colleague Meg Whitman to run the online marketplaces and eventually succeed her. Donahoe’s ambitious turnaround plan — a strategy that included changing marketplaces’s focus from auctions to fixed-priced items — has proven largely successful. EBay’s shares have more than doubled to $57 since he became CEO more than 6 years ago.

當多納霍明年卸任時，他就已經在eBay幹滿10年了。2005年，多納霍受到當時的首席執行官和之前在貝恩諮詢公司（Bain & Company）的同事梅格o惠德曼的招攬，加入了eBay，負責運營在線商城，並最終接替她擔任首席執行官。多納霍雄心勃勃的重整計劃——包括將商城的重點從拍賣轉向定價商品——取得了很大的成功。自他六年前擔任首席執行官至今，eBay的股價翻了一倍以上，達到現在的57美元。

Donahoe, who still has another year left as CEO, has offered to serve on eBay and PayPal’s boards next year, although whether he does so is up for debate. And while he called his leadership stint a wonderful, enormous learning opportunity,” he emphasized there was more work to be done. Added Donahoe: “I’m not looking backward yet. I’m looking forward.”

多納霍在首席執行官的職位上還有一年的任期，他主動提出要在明年擔任eBay和PayPal的董事會成員，儘管他是否會這樣做仍待商榷。他認爲，這次任期給了他一個“美妙而巨大的學習機會”，但他也強調還有更多的工作需要去做。他補充道：“我還沒到向後看的時候，我正在向前看。”