New York Times:

EBay said on Tuesday that it would spin off its PayPal payments unit into a separate publicly traded company, taking a step the activist hedge fund magnate Carl C. Icahn first demanded nine months ago.

The move will cleave eBay almost in half, separating it from the payments processor it acquired 12 years ago and built into a giant that generates almost half of the company’s revenue.

The spinoff is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015. John Donahoe, eBay’s current chief executive, will step down from that role once the separation is complete.

Presumably, this will leave PayPal more nimble as it prepares to deal with the coming rollout of Apple Pay.