From today on, eBay and PayPal will operate as two different companies. PayPal will now trade on the S&P 500 - this comes 13 years after the firms joined in 2002.

Both companies' business objectives have continued to grow in different directions - it is believed that they will be worth more on their own than as a single entity.

PayPal has been growing at a much faster pace than eBay - it is expected to be the bigger company after the split. Analysts expect its value to be close to $44bn - while eBay is likely to be nearer to $35bn.

In 2014 PayPal's revenues rose by 19 percent to $7.9bn - while eBay's sales grew by 6 percent.