PayPal president Marcus jumps ship to Facebook

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Facebook announced late on Monday it had recruited PayPal president David Marcus to head up its mobile messaging business.

“David is a widely respected leader in the technology industry with a track record of building great products and finding creative ways to turn them into great businesses,” said Facebook.

Facebook said Marcus taught himself to write code at the age of 8, and launched his first startup when he was 23.

“Messaging is a core part of Facebook’s service and key to achieving our mission of making the world more open and connected,” said Facebook. “Every day around 12 billion messages are sent on Facebook, and in April we announced that Messenger, our standalone messaging app, is now used by more than 200 million people every month.”

PayPal parent eBay said Marcus would leave the company on June 27.

"As the head of PayPal, David helped make a great business better, reinvigorating product design and innovation and energizing the team to deliver compelling consumer experiences," said eBay chief executive John Donahoe.

Donahoe adde that as an entrepreneur at heart, Marcus had made a career decision to focus on what he loves most - leading smaller teams.