PayPal: New CEO restructures payment service provider

The new man at the top wants to lead PayPal back into calmer waters and to long-term growth with a restructuring and cost-saving measures. Enrique Lores, who surprisingly moved from HP to the CEO position at the payment service provider in March, is focusing on the core business. The stock market remains skeptical despite solid figures.

PayPal's business will henceforth rest on three pillars: classic PayPal for consumers and merchants, the payment platform Venmo, and services for payment processing and cryptocurrencies. The Venmo, particularly popular in the USA, is to be expanded with further financial services for consumers.

Cost-saving measures – and layoffs?

"To accelerate growth and unlock our full potential, we need to return to our core principles," Lores emphasizes. The focus on three business areas is intended to simplify and speed up internal processes. The new organization is also intended to eliminate duplicate structures and unlock savings potential. In total, PayPal aims to save around 1.5 billion US dollars over the next two to three years and reinvest it.

PayPal is not yet commenting on details. However, according to a media report, the company is already planning massive job cuts. An insider has told the business news service Bloomberg that PayPal could lay off a fifth of its workforce in the next two or three years, which would currently be around 4500 people.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, PayPal released its results for the first quarter of 2026. According to the report, the company processed a payment volume of almost 464 billion US dollars in the first three months of the year. This was 11 percent more than in the comparable period of the previous year.

Stock price decline despite solid figures

For PayPal, this translates into a seven percent increase in revenue to 8.4 billion US dollars. At the same time, operating income decreased by three percent to 1.49 billion US dollars. Net profit also fell by 14 percent to 1.1 billion US dollars.

While the result is slightly above expectations, investors remain skeptical – the announced cost-saving measures could not change that. The PayPal share lost around 10 percent on Tuesday and has only partially recovered since then. The payment service provider's stock has been on a downward trend for months, which recently led to takeover rumors.

PayPal was one of the first providers to enable online payments. The service gained international popularity primarily as a payment method on eBay. In a recent survey, more than half of the Germans surveyed stated that they use PayPal. The business model is now under pressure due to numerous new competitors.

(vbr)