PayPal spin-off may tempt Google

Any possible sale of either PayPal or EBay will be watched closely in Dublin and Dundalk, where the two employ almost 3,000 staff.

In June, PayPal announced 400 new Irish jobs, which followed on from the 1,000 jobs announced in 2012.

EBay announced yesterday that it was spinning off the PayPal payment-services business from its EBay online marketplaces, to unlock value at a $70bn (€56bn) company whose valuation has been sagging lately.