In an interview with Bloomberg, John Donahoe, now Chairman of the board at PayPal, says the company is not for sale.
There’s little doubt that Donahoe is thrilled to be staying with PayPal and his new role as Chairman of the board. He said that with Dan Schulman, the new PayPal CEO being newer to the company he felt he could help Dan and help PayPal “get it’s sea legs” as PayPal becomes a public company.
Being the Chairman is very different from being in charge however and Donahoe emphasised that Dan will be in charge at PayPal.
Donahoe also said that although he’ll no longer be at eBay, he is more than happy to “coach” eBay’s new CEO Devin Wenig, just as previously Meg Whitman had mentored him. Donahoe said that he doesn’t need to be on the eBay board to do this, but it appears that he’s still keen to have an input in the company.
Will PayPal remain independant?
Dismissing rumours of which companies would see PayPal as an attractive acquisition, Donahow answered the question “Do you see PayPal staying as an independant company?” by saying “It’s important PayPal does whatever it needs to build a successful future and I think PayPal will continute to be an independent company” although he added who knows what may happen down the road. For now however, Donahoe said that PayPal has singular focus on payments with a unique set of assets which bodes well for PayPal’s future.
Talking of sites like Facebook with their Messenger money transfer capabilities, Donahoe points out that they and similar companies want to add value and close the loop. PayPal can help such companies do that and enable peer to peer payments whenever and wherever they’re needed and that’s something few other companies are in a position to do.
On seeing Donahoe’s genuine excitement at his new role at PayPal, one can’t help but think he’s breathing a huge sigh of relief at getting his name off the door at eBay and relishing his role in the runaway success that PayPal’s become.
