eBay will spin out its PayPal business into an independent, publicly-traded company in the second half of next year.PayPal produced US$7.2 billion in revenue over the 12 months to June and claims annual revenue growth of 46 per cent over the last decade.Payment volume on PayPal over the last year was US$203 billion - 71 per cent of it on products and services purchased outside the eBay traders' market. Annual payments growth was 25 per cent over the last five years, suggesting margins widened over that period.PayPal had an active user base of 152 million accounts, eBay said.eBay will retain all current group debt in the "new eBay" company, leaving PayPal with only short term liabilities to users - and in a strong position to develop a capital structure to even better challenge the banks.