In a move expected to give PayPal extra financial firepower in the form of stock expected to trade at a much higher price-to-earnings ratio, the widespread payments provider will be spun off from eBay as a new public company. Citing the emergence of Apple Pay and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba as new competitive threats, eBay CEO John Donahoe told the New York Times that PayPal would need more equity to make aggressive moves, including acquisitions and hires.As IT Wire observed: "It is noteworthy that eBay Australia sought to mandate the use of PayPal as the only electronic payment platform on eBay back in 2008. Within two years eBay was forced to retract this policy via the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. eBay then permitted sellers to choose at least one of three methods - PayPal, PayMate and merchant credit cards - from July 2010."It thus might be suggested eBay never managed to realise the value and objectives it first saw in PayPal and it was then only a matter of time before the companies conceded they should part ways," reported IT Wire.