David Marcus might not be the golden payments guru some (hint: Facebook) are making him out to be. A former PayPal executive with extensive knowledge of the goings-on there told Bank Innovation today that Marcus was anything but loved at PayPal. The source said PayPal “needed” to split from Marcus, because eBay Inc., the payments company’s parent, will have difficulty successfully spinning off PayPal in an initial public offering — as Carl Icahn demanded last March — until it has suitable leadership. And Marcus wasn’t that leader, apparently. “I wouldn’t be surprised if John got David the job at Facebook,” the source told us, referring to John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO. “John and Sheryl go way back.” Sheryl is Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. Facebook hired Marcus to run its Messaging unit yesterday. Requests for comment from Facebook and PayPal remain pending. According to the PayPal source, Marcus came to PayPal’s leadership role in 2012 as a “breath of fresh air,” with the mandate to innovate at PayPal. Instead, PayPal seemed to engage in a follow-Square strategy, launching products such as PayPal Here, a Square knockoff that cost the company a reported $800 million and generated scant returns, the source said. […]
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