Icahn Sells eBay Stake After Getting What He Wanted in PayPal Split

Carl Icahn took a big stake in eBay so he could agitate for PayPal’s spinoff. Now that he’s got what he wanted, he has exited eBay altogether.

The confrontational investor disclosed this week that he has sold his stake in eBay but retains nearly 4 percent ownership of PayPal as of the end of September. All eBay investors received an equal number of shares in PayPal when the payments division spun off into its own public company in July.

The move makes sense. Icahn’s reason for pushing for the PayPal spinoff was that he felt the faster-growing payments unit was being undervalued as part of the eBay umbrella company. Indeed, PayPal is now valued at $45 billion compared to $34 billion for eBay. It is growing much faster than eBay and now has more revenue, too.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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