itstargetnews
When Alex Chriss took the reins of PayPal from outgoing CEO Dan Schulman in late 2023, he set a technology-focused agenda. VISIONS based on tools like AI and stablecoins. Nearly two years ago, that vision was cut short when PayPal announced Tuesday that it was pushing Chriss out in favor of board chairman Enrique Lores, now CEO of HP. The move comes after Chriss failed to halt a slide in PayPal’s share price, which is down about 80% from five years ago, and as the company predicts lower earnings for 2026.
In a statementPayPal clarified that it replaced Chriss as a result of poor performance, saying: “The pace of change and execution was not in line with the board’s expectations.”
Lores’ appointment appeared to do little to reassure the market, which reacted to the glum earnings news with further selling, sending PayPal shares up nearly 17% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the news of Lores’ departure was reported Deaf ear HP, which named board member Bruce Broussard, former CEO of After thatas its temporary leader.
PayPal shares are currently trading at around $42, a far cry from 2021 when the stock reached an all-time high of $308. During this time, the company—which once dominated online commerce—saw a growing list of competitors, including Apple and Stripesdestroy the core of this payment and checkout business. Despite having massive global distribution and key products like Venmo, PayPal hasn’t hit on a strategy to keep up.
In an interview in December of good luck, Chriss acknowledges that PayPal faces a “classic innovator’s dilemma” as it seeks to protect its long-standing checkout and peer-to-peer payment business lines, while finding new ways to compete.
Before Chriss took over as CEO, PayPal was launched own stablecoin—one of the busiest areas of fintech at the moment—but the token, known as PYUSD, has failed to gain any significant market share. Currently, the total market cap for PYUSD is around $3.5 billion compared to approximately $70 billion for USDC, the US market leader backed by Circle and Coinbase.
Lores, the incoming CEO, will formally begin his PayPal tenure on March 1, while the company’s chief financial and operating officer, Jamie Miller, will lead the company in the interim. In a statement, Lores spoke of his plans for the company in several strokes.
“We will further strengthen the culture of innovation necessary to provide long-term change and balance it with near-term delivery, implement faster and more accurately, and make ourselves accountable for consistent delivery quarter by quarter, to further express PayPal’s industry leadership position,” said Lores.
