eBay Promotes Marcus to Head of PayPal

It was revealed on Thursday that eBay EBAY has named David Marcus the new president of the PayPal division. According to Market Watch, Marcus replaces Scott Thompson, who left EBAY in January to become the CEO at Yahoo YHOO. Marcus's new position, effective from Monday, will see him answer to CEO John Donahoe. Marcus had been leading PayPal's mobile payments business. Marcus appears to deserve the promotion, and eBay believe they have the right man. Much of the company's recently rising revenue is down to PayPal, which is on course to become eBay's biggest business. "David is the right leader for PayPal," Donahoe said. "He is a successful technology entrepreneur with a passion for great products that engage and delight customers." Marcus has only been with eBay since August 2011 after it acquired Zong, the mobile payments provider that he was CEO and founder of. With Thompson throwing the cat among the pigeons, it will be up to Marcus keep things floating. Last year saw PayPal process $118 billion in payments from 100 million users, including $4 billion in mobile payment volume. On Thursday, Wedbush published a research report stating that EBAY will outperform as it transforms into a payments-driven company and garners V/MA like multiples, leaving substantial upside to the target. The most significant upgrade to PayPal in more than a decade starts rolling out next week. “We believe that even in the highly unlikely scenario that the tens of thousands of global banks risk their underlying businesses in order to collude against PayPal in the face of regulatory, political and consumer outrage, the impact on EBAY would be around $0.10/share, which it could easily mitigate in the short term and eliminate later on.” On Monday, Morgan Stanley said that PayPal hosted an analyst day to give investors insight into their vision on how to revolutionize the way customers and merchants interact with money. eBay released PayPal Here, a credit card reader, that allows offline SMBs to accept card payments. “In May, PayPal plans to update its website and mobile app user interface, giving users more options to control their money. In the next 1-2 years, the company plans to provide customers with inventory and location-based services, such as personalized push notifications, through the integration of Milo and Where.”