A new report out today from The Information says that eBay is considering spinning off PayPal as soon as next year – a move investor Carl Icahn very publicly called on eBay to make earlier this year.

Jessica Lessin reports:

Ebay has been telling potential recruits for the position of PayPal CEO that it’s considering spinning off the payments business as soon as next year, according to two people briefed on the conversations. The search for a new head of the unit began in June after former PayPal CEO David Marcus said he was leaving for Facebook.

eBay’s PR department has been passing around this statement:

“The board will continue to assess all alternatives to create that long-term value and to enhance the growth and competitive positions of both eBay and PayPal. This position has not changed.”

Marcus is heading up the messaging unit at Facebook, and is expected to turn Messenger, which Facebook recently began requiring mobile users to use for chatting, into an ecommerce offering of sorts.

Spinning off companies would be nothing new for eBay. In the past, it has bought and sold the likes of Skype and StumbleUpon. The former, of course, eventually went on to be acquired by Microsoft. The latter became profitable last fall.

Earlier this week, PayPal announced a new “One Touch” payment feature for mobile apps, which it is making available at first to certain developers, but plans to roll out more broadly in the near future.

Image via PayPal