PayPal CEO Dan Schulman to leave at end of 2023, company begins search for successor
Dan Schulman, CEO of Paypal, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 10, 2019.

PayPal said on Thursday that CEO Dan Schulman will retire and leave the online payments company at the end of 2023.

Schulman, who became PayPal CEO after the split from eBay in 2015, notified the company of his decision to retire at the end of December. He will remain a member of PayPal's board of directors, which is hiring a search firm to find a successor.

"I'm proud of what we have accomplished at PayPal and of the incredibly talented and committed people I work with every day," Schulman said in a statement. "Together, we have reimagined financial services and e-commerce, and worked to improve the financial health of our customers."

PayPal shares jumped by about 130% since the 2015 spinoff. But the company has lost roughly three-quarters of its value since the stock's peak in July 2021.

In late January, PayPal said it would lay off 2,000 employees, which equates to 7% of the company's workforce. Schulman said in a statement at the time that PayPal was addressing the "challenging macroeconomic environment."

Last summer, activist investor Elliott Management accumulated an undisclosed stake in PayPal.

In an interview with CNBC's Kate Rooney on Thursday, Schulman said he didn't experience any pressure from Elliott.

"We actually really haven't spoken much this past quarter," Schulman said.

"Jesse and I are good friends," he said, referring to Elliott Management managing partner Jesse Cohn. "He's been incredibly supportive and I'm sure this announcement comes as a real surprise and shock because he's been so supportive."

Schulman added that PayPal's "board just wants to find the very best candidate," and said it is "going to look across the company and externally."

He said PayPal is "in a good place" and is "in a position to deliver a strong year," adding that the board would have enough time to find a successor.

"The timing was right," Schulman said. "It makes sense."

PayPal announced Schulman's upcoming departure alongside its fourth-quarter earnings report. The company said net revenue grew 7% year-over-year to $7.4 billion in the fourth quarter.

The stock slipped in after-hours trading to $77.99.

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