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Seven months after making the case against spinning off PayPal to Fortune, eBay CEO John Donahoe is singing a different tune.
eBay首席执行官约翰o多纳霍曾经对《财富》（Fortune）表示公司不会拆分PayPal。七个月后的今天，他发表了不同的言论。
On Tuesday, eBay announced plans to spin-off online payments service PayPal into a separate, publicly traded company. Doing so, according to eBay, will help both businesses take advantage of new opportunities to grow in challenging markets.
近日，eBay宣布了将在线支付业务PayPal拆分成一个独立公开上市公司的计划。根据eBay的说法，此举将帮助双方把握新的机遇，在竞争激烈的市场中继续发展。
The move comes months after activist investor Carl Icahn waged a public campaign for a PayPal spin-off. Icahn, who owns 30.8 million shares of eBay and is expected to make $180 million from today’s news, argued PayPal would grow faster and therefore be more valuable if cleaved from its parent company. (In March, Donahoe made the case that eBay and PayPal were stronger businesses together.)
在活跃投资家卡尔o伊坎发起公开运动号召拆分PayPal后的几个月，此举终于变成了现实。伊坎拥有eBay 3,080万股份，预计这个消息将使他净入1.8亿美元。伊坎曾表示，如果PayPal能脱离母公司独立出来，将会发展得更快，价值也会更高。（多纳霍则在今年3月称eBay和PayPal在一起才更强大。）
But in an interview with Fortune on Tuesday, Donahoe, said the proxy fight earlier this year did not sway eBay’s board. Rather, the about-face came after a strategic review during a June board retreat that showed the split would benefit both companies.
但在接受《财富》采访时，多纳霍表示，今年早些时候的代理权之争不会影响到eBay的董事会。在6月的战略回顾会议上，董事会表示了退让，改变了立场，证实两大业务拆伙可能将对彼此都更为有利。
“The synergies which helped fuel [PayPal's growth] are declining over time,” Donahoe said.
多纳霍表示：“随着时间的延续，有助于推动（PayPal发展）的协同效应正在不断递减。”
While eBay’s marketplace, the company’s core business, accounts for over 30% of PayPal’s annual revenues, Donahoe predicted that figure will dwindle to just 15% within three years. And while the marketplaces $9.9 billion in revenues last year eclipsed PayPal’s $7.2 billion, PayPal’s 19% annual revenue growth outpaced Marketplaces’ 10%. Because of that, Donahoe said PayPal has reached a size and scale where it is no longer in need of being tethered to its sister division.
尽管eBay的在线商城，也就是公司的核心业务，为PayPal的年收入贡献了超过30%的份额，但多纳霍预计这一数值将会在三年内降至15%。eBay去年的业务收入99亿美元，超过了PayPal的72亿美元，但PayPal 的增长率为19%，超过了eBay的10%。有鉴于此，多纳霍表示，PayPal已经达到了足够的规模，不再需要母公司的羁绊了。
“This was a very important decision, and we were not going to make it in a reactive way based on some external event,” said Donahoe, referring to the proxy fight earlier this year with Icahn. “What I have always tried to do and will always try to do is to do the right thing, to do the right thing for eBay and position eBay for the long-term.”
多纳霍表示：“这是一个十分重要的决策。由于一些公司外的风波，我们不准备被动地推动这一进程。”他指的是今年早些时候与伊坎的代理权之争。“无论是过去还是未来，我一直努力做正确的事情，为eBay做正确的事情，为eBay的长期发展找到合适的定位。”
Donahoe will step down from his CEO role after the spin-off is complete, which is expected in the second half of 2015. Devin Wenig, who is currently in charge of eBay’s online marketplace, will become CEO of the newly independent eBay while American Express executive Daniel Schulman is taking the helm at PayPal.
业务拆分预计将于2015年下半年完成，随后多纳霍将会离开首席执行官的岗位。目前负责eBay在线商城的德文o维尼格将成为eBay独立后的首席执行官，而前美国运通（American Express）的高管丹尼尔o舒尔曼将执掌PayPal。
Icahn is pleased with today’s news, regardless. In a statement, he said eBay’s board and management “have acted responsibly concerning the separation — perhaps a little later than they should have but earlier than we expected.”
无论如何，伊坎对这个消息十分满意。在一份声明中，他表示eBay的董事会和管理层“在考虑拆分问题时表现出了负责任的态度——也许他们的动作本来应该更快一些，但这也好于我们的预期了。”
“This is a positive, and the spin-off unlocks value,” Mark Mahaney, managing director and analyst for RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a report on Tuesday. But Ben Schachter, a Macquarie Capital analyst, argued the separate does little to address the challenges eBay and PayPal face vis-a-vis increasing competition.
加拿大皇家银行资本市场（RBC Capital Markets）的总经理兼分析师马克o马哈尼在报告中表示：“这是一个积极的举措，拆分行动将释放更多价值。”但麦格理资本（Macquarie Capital）的分析师本o沙赫特认为，拆分在帮助eBay和PayPal应对日益激烈的竞争带来的挑战上，带来不了什么帮助。
EBay EBAY -1.08% competes with Amazon and an array of other online and bricks and mortar retailers. Meanwhile, PayPal faces off against upstarts like Square, Stripe and Apple’s new payment service, Pay.
eBay需要与亚马逊（Amazon）以及一系列其他网络和实体零售商展开竞争。与此同时，PayPal也面临着来自Square、Stripe和Pay——后者是苹果（Apple）新的支付服务——等后起之秀的压力。
Schachter did say that the split-up does make it easier for the separate companies to make acquisitions and sign up partners.
但沙赫特也表示，拆分以后，两个独立的公司能够更容易地进行并购和寻找合作伙伴。
When Donahoe steps down next year, he will have spent 10 years at eBay. Donahoe arrived in 2005, wooed by then-CEO and ex-Bain & Company colleague Meg Whitman to run the online marketplaces and eventually succeed her. Donahoe’s ambitious turnaround plan — a strategy that included changing marketplaces’s focus from auctions to fixed-priced items — has proven largely successful. EBay’s shares have more than doubled to $57 since he became CEO more than 6 years ago.
当多纳霍明年卸任时，他就已经在eBay干满10年了。2005年，多纳霍受到当时的首席执行官和之前在贝恩咨询公司（Bain & Company）的同事梅格o惠德曼的招揽，加入了eBay，负责运营在线商城，并最终接替她担任首席执行官。多纳霍雄心勃勃的重整计划——包括将商城的重点从拍卖转向定价商品——取得了很大的成功。自他六年前担任首席执行官至今，eBay的股价翻了一倍以上，达到现在的57美元。
Donahoe, who still has another year left as CEO, has offered to serve on eBay and PayPal’s boards next year, although whether he does so is up for debate. And while he called his leadership stint a wonderful, enormous learning opportunity,” he emphasized there was more work to be done. Added Donahoe: “I’m not looking backward yet. I’m looking forward.”
多纳霍在首席执行官的职位上还有一年的任期，他主动提出要在明年担任eBay和PayPal的董事会成员，尽管他是否会这样做仍待商榷。他认为，这次任期给了他一个“美妙而巨大的学习机会”，但他也强调还有更多的工作需要去做。他补充道：“我还没到向后看的时候，我正在向前看。”
