PayPal is spinning off from parent company, eBay, and both will become independent publicly traded companies in the latter half of 2015.

Citing the changing landscape of both e-commerce and payments, eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe said “a thorough strategic review with our board shows that keeping eBay and PayPal together beyond 2015 clearly becomes less advantageous to each business strategically and competitively.”

The spinoff will bring major leadership changes to both companies. Devin Wenig, president of eBay Marketplaces, will step in to become eBay’s new CEO.

Dan Schulman, of American Express’s Enterprise Growth Group, will become PayPal’s president and CEO-designee.

The companies will have an arm’s length working relationship, though whether PayPal will continue to handle the majority of eBay’s payments remains to be seen.

Since being acquired by eBay in 2002, PayPal has grown into a massive payments facilitator, with payment volumes reaching $203 billion in the last year.

Activist investor Carl Icahn first called for the eBay/PayPal split early this year. Icahn stated that PayPal shareholders would benefit massively from a split, and he threw harsh criticisms at eBay’s management.

It’s likely that PayPal can become a much more nimble company when it’s finally untied from eBay.

PayPal is facing major pressure from Alibaba’s AliPay, and Apple’s recently announced Apple Pay and it would take great effort and talent to remain competitive, both of which may come from the spinoff.