PayPal Chief Exec Dan Schulman to Retire at End of 2023; Wants to Give Board Enough Time to Find Replacement

PayPal Chief Exec Dan Schulman to Retire at End of 2023; Wants to Give Board Enough Time to Find Replacement

Edited by: TJVNews.com

It would appear that a shake-up of sorts is taking place at the payments giant known as PayPal. According to a recently published article in the Wall Street Journal , PayPal Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Dan Schulman said he would retire from the company at the end of 2023, after holding the position for the last nine years.

The report indicates that the board of PayPal has not yet chosen a successor bit Schulman said he would help with the leadership transition and remain on the board.

The WSJ reported that in a statement concerning his pending retirement, Schulman, 65 said, “I’m at a point in my life where I want to devote more time to my passions outside the workplace.”

Prior to coming aboard PayPal as the chief executive, Schulman held an executive post at American Express Company. The WSJ reported that throughout Schulman’s years at the helm of PayPal he led the company in 2015 through it departure from eBay Inc. He also cut deals during his tenure at the payment giant with credit card networks and banks to assist in broadening the usage of PayPal.

In order to establish PayPal as a more diversified financial-tech company,  Schulman spent billions on acquisitions to move PayPal beyond being a checkout button on retailers’ websites, the WSJ reported.

The WSJ also reported that Schulman has said that he wants the PayPal board of directors to have a sufficient amount of time in order to conduct a meticulous search for his replacement, as was reflected in a call he placed to discuss the company’s quarterly earnings with analysts.

Schulman said,  “I wanted to be sure that PayPal had positive momentum and was in position to deliver a solid year of performance, so I can be sure I wasn’t leaving the company in a difficult position.”

Schulman’s tenure at PayPal was also defined by the company taking positions on controversial political issues. The WSJ reported that PayPal called off a plan to open a global operations center in North Carolina after passage of a state law that halted antidiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people in 2016, PayPal also stopped processing payments for people and companies that it determined were promoting hate and discrimination, including right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

During the beginning stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, PayPal saw a explosion in e-commerce as most people were shopping online for essentials. As such, the WSJ reported that in 2020, PayPal posted record payments volume and profit during that year. As a result in the boon in online purchases made through PayPal during the height of the pandemic, the company’s stock soared and Schulman received a stock award in 2021 that was valued at about $31.3 million at the time, according to the WSJ report.  The report also indicated that In July 2021, PayPal’s stock price reached an all-time high of about $308.

Having felt the boost in profit from online shopping, during the pandemic, PayPal announced a strategy to become a so-called super app, the WSJ reported. Schulman then set a target of doubling PayPal’s customer count by 2025. After about a year, PayPal abandoned its ambitious 2025 targets, according to the WSJ report.

In the middle of 2021, when shoppers received their Covid vaccinations and felt that it was safe to return to brick and mortar stores for their needs,  PayPal’s business started to suffer, the WSJ reported. Its stock sold off sharply after it forecast slower growth in consecutive quarters. Shareholders also were less than thrilled to learn that PayPal had considered a $40 billion-plus takeover of Pinterest Inc. PayPal eventually backed off from the potential deal, the report indicated.

In 2022, finance chief John Rainey, left PayPal as did several senior executives. Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. revealed that it had taken a stake in the company, last summer, the WSJ reported. By the culmination of 2022, PayPal’s stock had fallen to $71, down 77% from its all-time high.

The WSJ report also said that Truist Securities analyst Andrew Jeffrey upgraded PayPal last month and raised his price target partially on the prospect that  Schulman would step aside this year. “We think he could move on from PayPal, legacy intact,” Jeffrey wrote.