NEW ORLEANS — PayPal has announced that board chair Enrique Lores will replace CEO Alex Chriss, saying the company’s turnaround and strategic initiatives were not advancing fast enough under Chriss’s leadership. The digital payments company also reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results and forecast lower profits ahead.
PayPal Leadership Transition
Lores, who has served on PayPal’s board for nearly five years and has been chair since July, will assume the CEO role on March 1. He is currently president and CEO of HP Inc., where he has spent more than six years leading the company. In a statement issued on Jan. 3, he said the payments industry is evolving rapidly due to new technologies, regulatory changes, heightened competition and the accelerating role of artificial intelligence (AI).
“The payments industry is changing faster than ever,” Lores said. “PayPal sits at the center of this change, and I look forward to leading the team to accelerate the delivery of new innovations and to shape the future of digital payments and commerce.”
Lores brings decades of leadership experience to the role. He joined HP in 1989 as an engineering intern and later oversaw the company’s split from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, navigated an unsolicited takeover attempt by Xerox, and led efforts to integrate artificial intelligence across HP’s product portfolio.
PayPal said Lores’ background in managing complex transformations positions him to guide the company as competition in digital payments continues to intensify.
The board thanked Chriss for his contributions, including efforts to monetize Venmo and expand PayPal’s buy now, pay later business, but said the company’s turnaround was not progressing quickly enough under his leadership. Chriss joined PayPal in late 2023 as the company sought to revive growth following a post-pandemic slowdown.
PayPal said Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jamie Miller will serve as interim CEO until Lores takes over. David Dorman, a PayPal board member and former technology executive, was named independent chair effective immediately.
Earnings Outlook
The leadership change came as PayPal reported fourth-quarter results that missed Wall Street expectations. The company posted an adjusted profit of $1.23 per share on revenue of $8.68 billion, below the estimates of analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research, who had expected earnings of $1.29 per share on revenue of $8.77 billion. PayPal also forecast lower profit for the first quarter.
The disappointing earnings outlook and leadership shakeup sent PayPal shares sharply lower, with the stock falling more than 20% in early trading on Jan. 3. The company’s stock has lost nearly half its value over the past year and is down more than 80% over the last five years.
Competitive Pressures
Once a pioneer in online payments, PayPal has struggled to maintain market share as competition has intensified from newer buy now, pay later providers and major technology rivals such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. At the same time, lower- and middle-income consumers — a core segment of PayPal’s user base — have pulled back on discretionary spending, further pressuring growth.
PayPal’s market capitalization is now about $50 billion compared with a reported valuation of roughly $110 billion for privately held rival Stripe according to Yahoo Finance.
