Why PayPal Thinks Bill Ready’s Exit Won’t Sink the Ship

PayPal (PYPL) announced on June 20 that its COO, Bill Ready, would be departing in the coming months, and its stock tanked on the news. PYPL fell more than 2.0% on June 21, the day after the announcement.

Still, PayPal remains one of the best-performing major technology stocks in the game. Its shares are up 38% since the beginning of the year as of June 21. Square (SQ) and Facebook (FB) shares have gained 30% and 46%, respectively, year-to-date as of June 21. Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) are up 27% and 43%, respectively, as of the same date. Alphabet (GOOGL) is up 7.7%.

Ready joined the company in 2013 after PayPal bought Braintree, the company he was running. In 2016, he became PayPal’s COO, a position that saw him spearhead the company’s product strategy. One of PayPal’s products that recorded huge growth during Ready’s tenure as operating chief was mobile payment service Venmo. CEO Dan Schulman has called Venmo a crown jewel for the company.

Venmo has many uses. Like Google, it’s even become a verb for some people. It allows users to send money to one another, it can be used to pay for purchases online and in stores, and it can be used to transfer funds from a digital wallet to a bank account. Its competitors include Square’s Cash App, which supports similar functions.

Venmo processed $21 billion in transaction volumes in the first quarter.