The size of Elliott’s stake and its intentions couldn’t be learned. PayPal has roughly $8b of cash and short-term investments and not much more debt; activists are frequently drawn to companies they say could allocate capital more aggressively. Earlier this month, news hit that Elliott recently bought 9% of Pinterest. That's the same company that PayPal was in talks to buy in the fall, until PayPal shareholders revolted, and the company abandoned its pursuit.
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Activist Elliott Management holds stake in PayPal
PayPal has been in an activist’s sights before. In 2014, Carl Icahn took a stake in eBay Inc. EBAY 1.55%▲ and pushed for the company to spin off PayPal, which he expected would be more highly valued as a payments company separate from the namesake shopping platform. The company spun off PayPal the following year.
