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The electronic-payments firm just missed quarterly revenue estimates, sending its stock down as much as 5 pct. Investor reaction seems unjustified and reflects fear and misunderstanding about the industry. A fintech powwow’s record crowds, though, suggest PayPal may find friends.

The $70 bln online auction company has for years resisted setting free its payments business. Apple and Alibaba created more urgency than Carl Icahn and other investors could. EBay squandered a big early advantage, but independence may yet give PayPal a chance to play catch-up.

Carl Icahn buried the hatchet with the online auctioneer’s board before it came out that records of 145 mln customers were breached. Similar cracks just cost the boss of retailer Target his job. That leaves an opening for another investor to pressure eBay’s CEO and directors.

The activist is quitting his proxy fight now that the company is appointing one new director and agreeing to talk to him. Considering Icahn had “never seen worse governance” and was right about separating PayPal, that’s a retreat. But he may yet win the spinoff war.

The Internet company has nabbed the head of eBay’s PayPal as its new CEO. That’s good for Yahoo, but less so for eBay’s shareholders. The auctioneer’s payments business is a gem that could grow faster on its own. Thompson’s walk suggests such a split isn’t coming any time soon.

Should Ebay change its name to PayPal? The Internet group’s auction business is mature. Yet its online payments business is growing fast. Plans announced on Wednesday to double PayPal’s Asian staff by the end of the year accentuate the point. A better idea than changing the stationery, however, is spinning off PayPal.

The online merchant’s ownership provided rich soil for the payments system to thrive. But PayPal is now mature enough to grow faster on its own. Separating the two businesses could send eBay’s stock up 15 percent or more.