Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, August 15 (Xinhua)-- Digital payment giant PayPal on Monday appointed Alex Chriss, an executive at US tax software company Intuit, as its next chief executive, hoping to gain a bigger share of the small business payment market.

Chriss will replace Paypal's current chief executive Dan Schulman (Dan Schulman) next month. Schulman will remain on the company's board until the next annual shareholders' meeting in May next year.

The company's shares rose 2.8% to $63.27 on Monday on the news. Activist investor Elliott Management disclosed in a recent filing that it had cancelled its stake in PayPal.

For the first time since its separation from ecommerce company eBay in 2015, PayPal will have a new chief executive at the helm. Analysts say the appointment of Chriss as chief executive could signal that the company will focus more on mergers and acquisitions.

"We believe that [Chriss's] work experience sounds closely related to PayPal as the company reemphasizes its focus on small merchants and launches PayPal full payment (Complete Payments)," analyst William Blair wrote in a report.

PayPal full payment is a payment processing solution for small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to Wolf Research (Wolfe Research), Chriss's biggest achievement at Intuit was the $12 billion acquisition and integration of email marketing software Mailchimp in 2021.

Chriss has worked at Intuit for approximately 20 years and is currently the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the small Business and self-employed Division of the company.

"given that the main investor concern about PayPal is the company's poor track record in acquiring and consolidating assets in recent years, we see this appointment as a key positive factor," said Darrin Peller, an analyst at Wolf Research.

PayPal's thin profits have led the company to take cost-cutting measures, which have become the focus of discussion among investors, and analysts are also worried about the competition of the technology giant Apple in the "buy and pay" field.

Last week, the company launched a dollar stabilization currency (stablecoin), becoming the first large financial technology company to accept digital currency payments and transfers.

Chriss's appointment may excite people about PayPal's M & An ambitions, but the company's thin profit margins are expected to be a hindrance.

"We don't think the takeover of Chriss will make much difference to the company. Given the involvement of activist investor Elliott Management, we believe that it will be very difficult for the company to change its current focus on improving profit margins and returning capital to shareholders."

In August last year, Elliot disclosed its stake in the company. While there is no public dispute between the two companies, analysts say Paypal's focus on improving profit margins may be under pressure from Elliott.

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