In fact, Hottovy said PayPal is actually now worth more than both eBay Marketplaces and eBay Enterprises on a sum-of-the-parts basis. PayPal has been eBay’s fastest-growing segment for several quarters now. In the second quarter, it surpassed 150 million active registered accounts and expanded merchant services total payment volumes for the fifth straight quarter. The unit has also proven to be among eBay’s more innovative, with payment processing startup Braintree, acquired by PayPal last September for $800 million, launching a software tool last quarter that allows developers to integrate both Braintree and PayPal in apps in less than 10 minutes What’s more, a majority of PayPal users don’t even access the service through eBay anymore. The payments segment recorded $55.05 billion in total transactions flow last quarter, up 29% year-over-year, according to eBay’s most recent 10-Q filing. Of that, just $14.68 billion was processed on eBay, while the remaining $40.37 billion was processed through other online merchants, some of which were likely direct eBay competitors.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/paypal-spinoff-would-slice-ebay-in-half-2014-08-28