Carl Icahn Displays Interest In eBay; Shares Surge In After Market Trading

After the market closed on Wednesday, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced its fourth quarter results that beat on both EPS and revenue. The good news continued as the company announced a $5 billion buyback plan.

eBay also disclosed a non-binding proposal from Carl Icahn who owns a 0.82 percent stake in the company. The activist investor wants the company to spin off PayPal as he believes that PayPal would benefit from a different management team. Icahn has had no talks as of yet with eBay's founder.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Icahn said that owning shares of the company is a “no brainer” but the company has not done as well as it should have. Icahn noted that the company's earnings are “lagging” those of other tech companies such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN)

Two employees of Carl Icahn were also named to eBay's board of directors.