????身家億萬的維權(quán)投資人卡爾?伊坎近來對技術(shù)領(lǐng)域產(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣。本周三，他在多個電視節(jié)目上露面，反復(fù)呼吁科技巨頭蘋果（Apple）花上高達(dá)1,500億美元來回購公司股票。與往常一樣，他聲明他愿意用實(shí)際投資行動支持自己的言論，透露自己已經(jīng)購入價值5億美元的蘋果股票，使他對蘋果的投資額度累計達(dá)到30億美元，此舉導(dǎo)致蘋果股價上漲了1%。

????當(dāng)日收盤后，在線拍賣零售商eBay透露，伊坎已經(jīng)購入公司的大量股份，同時還要求這家公司進(jìn)行徹底改變。這一次，伊坎對回購不再感興趣，轉(zhuǎn)而想“分裂這家公司”。eBay表示，伊坎提議讓公司拆分旗下的在線支付部門貝寶（Paypal），并要求在eBay的董事會內(nèi)占有兩個席位。eBay對伊坎的兩個建議都予以了回絕。

????eBay表示，伊坎已經(jīng)收購了公司流通股中的0.82%。盡管這批股票的價值已達(dá)數(shù)百萬美元，但與他以往提出變革建議時手上所持有的股票相比，這個比例仍然較小。不過，盡管這么小的控股率難以說服eBay在董事會內(nèi)給予伊坎兩個席位，eBay卻不應(yīng)無視伊坎對于分離貝寶的意見。

????起初，貝寶只是一個小型的支付處理服務(wù)，用于保證豆豆娃（Beanie Babies）的賣家和買家在eBay交易時的安全性。如今，它卻發(fā)展為成千上萬的商家和數(shù)百萬會員方方面面的支付選擇。許多情況下。它的優(yōu)點(diǎn)就是方便快捷——有多少次你在網(wǎng)店點(diǎn)擊貝寶的按鈕，只是因?yàn)槟悴辉鸽x開沙發(fā)去拿信用卡？

????貝寶早期的成功絕大部分（如果不是全部）都要?dú)w功于與eBay的關(guān)聯(lián)。如果不是eBay強(qiáng)制會員注冊貝寶，它可能無法得到構(gòu)建高效安全的支付平臺所需的那批關(guān)鍵會員。同樣，如果不是貝寶提供了安全保護(hù)和各種支付手段，eBay也不會發(fā)展得這么快。由此，我們很容易理解eBay的董事會為何認(rèn)為貝寶是自己業(yè)務(wù)中至關(guān)重要、與之相輔相成的一部分。

????然而，相輔相成的關(guān)系往往有消極作用。具體到eBay，它不利于股東利益。自從約翰?多納霍于2008年3月接替梅格?惠特曼擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官以來，eBay的股價已經(jīng)上漲了約75%。這個數(shù)值雖不容小視，不過比起其他電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站的股價來說，上漲幅度仍顯不足。亞馬遜（Amazon）同期上漲約460%，而其他支付網(wǎng)站如Visa漲幅也達(dá)到了250%。把時間拉近些，情況也沒有任何好轉(zhuǎn)。去年eBay的股價持平，而亞馬遜上漲了56%，Visa上漲了48%。

????估值方面，eBay也落了下風(fēng)。這家公司來年的企業(yè)價值倍數(shù)（ev/ebitida，企業(yè)價值除以盈利，用于測定公司的投資回報率）是9。與此同時，其他支付服務(wù)的運(yùn)營商如Visa和萬事達(dá)信用卡（Mastercard）來年的企業(yè)價值倍數(shù)大概是15到17，比eBay高出約40%。電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站的表現(xiàn)同樣優(yōu)于eBay，亞馬遜來年的企業(yè)價值倍數(shù)約為33，而團(tuán)購網(wǎng)站Groupon則是17。

????Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor, has been interested in technology lately. Wednesday, he made several TV appearances to reiterate his call for tech giant Apple (AAPL) to engage in a massive $150 billion share buyback. As usual, he demonstrated that he was willing to put his money where his mouth was, revealing that he had upped his stake in the company by $500 million to $3 billion, causing Apple's stock to jump 1%.

????Then, after the bell, eBay (EBAY) revealed that Icahn had built up a stake in the online auction retailer and was pushing for some radical changes. But in this case, though, Icahn wasn't interested in buybacks -- he was looking for a breakup. Ebay said Icahn wanted the company to spin off its online payment arm, Paypal, and had requested two seats on eBay's board. eBay rejected both of Mr. Icahn's proposals.

????eBay said that Icahn amassed an equity stake equal to 0.82% of its outstanding shares, which, while worth millions, is small compared to the stakes he usually builds in companies before he calls for changes. While such a small stake makes it difficult for eBay to be persuaded to give Icahn a couple of seats on its board, it shouldn't dismiss Icahn's views regarding a possible Paypal spin off.

????Paypal has grown from its roots as a small payment processor helping buyers and sellers of Beanie Babies feel safe to do business on eBay, to a full-on payment alternative for thousands of merchants with millions of members. Its advantage in many cases is simply speed and convenience -- how many times have you clicked the Paypal button while checking out of an e-commerce store just because you didn't want to get off the couch to grab your credit card?

????Paypal owes most, if not all, of its early success to its relationship with eBay. Paypal probably wouldn't have gained that critical mass of members needed to build an effective and safe payment platform if it weren't for eBay basically forcing its members to sign up. At the same time, eBay may not have grown as fast if it weren't for the protection and various payment features Paypal provides. Given this, it is easy to see why eBay's board considers Paypal to be a critical and symbiotic part of its business.

????But symbiotic relationships are often destructive -- in eBay's case, destructive to shareholder value. Since John Donahue took over from Meg Whitman as chief executive of eBay in March of 2008, eBay's stock has increased around 75%. That's nothing to sneeze at, but it lags gains seen in the shares of other e-commerce sites, like Amazon (AMZN), which was up roughly 460% during the same time period, as well as other payment networks, like Visa (V), which was up 250%. The story isn't any better closer in. In the past year eBay's shares have been flat while Amazon was up 56% and Visa was up 48%.

????eBay is also lagging when it comes to valuation. The company as a whole trades on a multiple of nine times next year's enterprise value divided by earnings (or ev/ebitida), which measures a company's return on investment. Meanwhile, the payment operators, like Visa and Mastercard (MA), trade roughly at 15 to 17 times next year's ev/ebitda, or around 40% higher than eBay. E-commerce sites also trump eBay's numbers with Amazon trading at around 33 times next year's ev/ebitida and Groupon (GRPN) trading at around 17 times.