PayPal’s Schulman Announces He Will Retire As CEO at Year’s End

Dan Schulman, chief executive and president of PayPal Holdings Inc., will retire at the end of the year but retain a seat on the company’s board, he revealed late Thursday during a conference call with equity analysts to discuss PayPal’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 results. Schulman, who turned 65 in January, has led the company since taking over in 2015 in the wake of its separation from long-time owner eBay Inc.

Schulman said he will serve as CEO throughout the year to give PayPal’s board time to seek a replacement. “A year gives the board enough time to find the next leader of PayPal,” he told the analysts, adding, “we still have a lot to accomplish.”

As for the final quarter of 2022, PayPal recorded $357 billion in payment volume, a 5% increase from the same period in 2021. Volume for the year rose 9% to $1.36 trillion. Volume for its popular Venmo peer-to-peer payment service reached $62.5 billion, up 3% year-over-year, though the total volume of PayPal’s P2P products (Venmo plus PayPal and Xoom) fell 2% to $91 billion. Schulman singled out the P2P services as crucial to continued growth. “We need to re-establish P2P as a key anchor for PayPal and Venmo. The more people store in their [P2P] balance, the more they have to spend at checkout,” he said.

Revenue for the quarter came to $7.4 billion, up 7%. For the year, revenue totaled $27.5 billion—excluding any remaining contribution from eBay—an 8% rise from 2021. Operating income totaled $1.2 billion for the quarter, up 18%, and $3.8 billion for the year, down 10% from 2021. “Our first quarter is off to a much stronger start than we anticipated,” Schulman said.

Responding to questions about his plans for the year and the reasons for his planned retirement, Schulman said the first-quarter results set up PayPal with “a nice glide path” toward 2024. He said he viewed the end of the year as the right time to step aside. “It’s never a good time to retire,” he added. “It’s always a bittersweet moment.”

Finding his successor, Schulman said, will be a “complex business.” PayPal will employ a search firm, he said, adding he stands ready to work with the new CEO once the person is in place. “If [the search] takes longer” than the end of the year, “I’m willing to stay on,” he said. “There’s a lot of moving parts in what can happen here.”

Asked about his plans after he leaves PayPal, Schulman hinted he will be busy. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized I’ve got a lot of passions outside the workplace,” he said.