Who Owns PayPal?

Who is the owner of PayPal?

PayPal is a public company owned by its shareholders, but its ownership history is more eventful than that simple answer suggests.

The company traces its roots to 1999, when Elon Musk founded the online payments startup X.com, while Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Max Levchin were building a similar service called Confinity. The two companies later merged, with Musk exiting before the end of 2000. Confinity was renamed PayPal and went public on the Nasdaq in February 2002, with shares jumping 50% on the first day of trading.

PayPal didn’t stay public for long. Just months after its IPO, eBay (EBAY +0.05%) acquired the company for $1.5 billion and took it private, relying heavily on PayPal to power its checkout experience. Over time, PayPal expanded beyond eBay, added services like Venmo, and ultimately spun off as an independent public company again in 2015.

Who are the largest shareholders?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires public company insiders and beneficial owners to disclose their share positions. Insiders are usually company executives who are privy to corporate details before they become public knowledge. Beneficial owners hold more than 5% of a class of stock.

According to SEC filings, the largest insiders and beneficial owners of PayPal include the following.

1. Pierre M. Omidyar is the founder of eBay. In 2018, he reported owning 58 million shares of PayPal. Based on PayPal's current outstanding share count, that amounted to a 5.2% ownership stake in early 2024. At a stock price of roughly $62, Omidyar's position was worth about $3.6 billion. Omidyar is no longer actively involved in eBay or PayPal.
2. Daniel H. Schulman was CEO of PayPal from 2015 until he retired at the end of 2023. As of his last filing in December 2023, Schulman owned 597,883 PayPal shares. His position amounted to a 0.05% ownership stake, worth about $37 million.
3. Aaron Karczmer is executive vice president and chief enterprise services officer for PayPal. As of March 2024, Karczmer owned 142,442 PayPal shares worth almost $9 million.
4. John Joseph Donahoe is CEO of Nike (NYSE:NIKE) and is the chairman of PayPal's board of directors. Donahoe owned 83,553 PayPal shares as of January 2024, valued at about $5 million.
5. David Wyatt Dorman, also a PayPal director, owned 66,405 shares as of January 2024. Dorman's PayPal position has added roughly $4 million to his net worth.

The largest institutional investors in PayPal are as follows.

1. Vanguard Group owns about 8% of PayPal. The mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) powerhouse has 90 million shares worth $5.6 billion in total.
2. BlackRock (BLK +0.21%), one of the world's largest asset managers, has 72.5 million shares of PayPal, or 6.5% of the company. The shares' cumulative value of $4.5 billion is a tiny sliver of BlackRock's $10 trillion of assets under management.
3. State Street Corp. (STT +1.36%), another fund manager, owns 4% of PayPal, with 45.3 million shares. The position is worth about $2.8 billion.
4. Comprehensive Financial Management, a California-based financial advisory firm, holds 28.6 million PayPal shares. That is a 2.5% ownership position, worth about $1.8 billion.
5. Geode Capital Management is an asset manager and Fidelity spinoff. Geode owns 21.2 million PayPal shares. The position is worth $1.3 billion and amounts to a 1.9% ownership stake.

Who is on the board of directors for PayPal?

PayPal's board has 12 directors.

1. Rodney C. Adkins is president of capital investment company and business consultant 3RAM Group LLC. His resume also includes a decades-long leadership career with IBM (IBM +1.78%).
2. Alex Chriss is PayPal's president and CEO. He came to PayPal from Intuit (INTU -6.41%), where he most recently held the title of executive vice president and general manager of the company's small business and self-employed group. Chriss also serves as a director for the home remodeling website Houzz.
3. Jonathan Christodoro has a lengthy career in investment banking, which includes working as a managing director for Carl Icahn's investment house. Christodoro has been on PayPal's board since 2015. He is currently a partner at Patriot Global Management.
4. John J. Donahoe has been chairman of PayPal's board since 2015. Donahoe is also president, CEO, and director at Nike.
5. David W. Dorman is former chairman and CEO of AT&T (T +1.33%) predecessor SBC Communications. Dorman is also non-executive board chair of CVS (CVS -1.67%) and a founding partner of private investment firm Centerview Capital Technology Fund. He has been on PayPal's board since 2015.
6. Belinda Johnson joined PayPal as a director in 2017. She formerly held leadership positions at Airbnb (ABNB -5.23%), including chief operating officer. She also served as a senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Yahoo!
7. Enrique Lores is president, CEO, and director for technology company HP (HPQ -1.54%). He has been with HP for three decades. In 2015, he led the division of the former Hewlett-Packard Company into two entities: HP, Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company.
8. Gail J. McGovern has been president and CEO of the American Red Cross since 2008. She has served on PayPal's board since 2015. She currently chairs the corporate governance and nominating committee.
9. Deborah M. Messemer served as major market managing partner for professional services firm KPMG from 2008 to 2018. She joined PayPal's board in 2018 and serves as a member of the audit, risk, and compliance committee.
10. David M. Moffett was CEO of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, between 2008 and 2009. He was also chief financial officer of Star Banc, overseeing the acquisitions of Firstar Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. Moffett has been a director for PayPal since 2015.
11. Ann M. Sarnoff is chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group. She has also served as president of BBC Worldwide Americas and chief operating officer of BBC Worldwide North America. She has been on PayPal's board since 2017.
12. Frank D. Yeary is a manager at private investment firm Darwin Capital Advisors. He has also held senior leadership roles at Camberview Partners and Citigroup Investment Banking. Yeary has been a director for PayPal since 2015.