PayPal's Marcus Leaving To Lead Facebook's Messaging Products

(RTTNews) - E-commerce giant eBay (EBAY) said Monday that David Marcus, head of its payment processing unit PayPal, is leaving and will take up an assignment with Facebook (FB) to lead its messaging products.

Marcus is credited with having played a key role in infusing momentum at PayPal with focus on design and innovation. eBay CEO John Donahoe acknowledged that Marcus leaves behind a strong team.

PayPal continues to build good momentum and is on track to meet its guidance for 2015, Donahoe said.

Under Marcus, PayPal moved aggressively into stores and mobile devices. PayPal was recently targeted by activist investor Carl Icahn, who wanted the unit to be spun off, but later retracted.

PayPal has more than 148 million active accounts and processed $180 million in payment volume last year. PayPal accounted for 41 percent of eBay's revenue in 2013.

Meanwhile Facebook is moving in a frenetic pace vis-a-vis its messaging business. In February, the social networking site acquired messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion and has worked on other products as well.

eBay stock closed Monday at $49.58, down $0.12 or 0.24%, on a volume of 21 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock dropped $0.78 or 1.57%, trading at $48.80.

Facebook closed at $62.88, up $0.38 or 0.61%, on a volume of 36.5 million shares. In after hours, the stock gained $0.22 or 0.35%. to trade at $63.10.