PayPal ejects CEO Alex Chriss for HP’s Enrique Lores as stock craters 17%

Wall Street doesn’t forgive a growth story that stops growing, and on Tuesday, PayPal paid the ultimate price. In a brutal premarket verdict that wiped 17% off the company’s market cap, the payments giant announced it is ousting CEO Alex Chriss effective March 1, replacing him with HP veteran Enrique Lores. The catalyst wasn’t a scandal, but something arguably worse in Silicon Valley: a failure to execute.

"The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board's expectations," the company said in a searingly direct statement, signaling that the two-and-a-half-year turnaround effort under Chriss had officially stalled.

The Numbers That Forced the Hand

The board’s patience evaporated alongside the company’s margins. PayPal reported Q4 revenue of $8.68 billion, missing analyst estimates of roughly $8.80 billion. But the real alarm bells rang in the core business: growth in "branded checkout" the familiar yellow button that generates the bulk of PayPal's profit, slowed to a crawl at just 1%.

For a company fighting a multifront war against Apple Pay, Stripe, and Block, 1% is effectively a retreat. Adding to the bleeding, PayPal issued a dismal forecast for 2026, projecting adjusted profits would decline in the low single digits rather than the 8% growth Wall Street had penciled in.

"The results and guidance are much weaker than what were already low buy-side expectations," a Jefferies analyst noted in a research note Tuesday morning.

From Hardware to Fintech

The choice of Enrique Lores, currently the CEO of HP Inc., signals a shift from "product-led reinvention" to "disciplined operator." Lores isn't a stranger to PayPal; he has sat on the board for five years and served as Chair since July 2024.

However, the transition appears chaotic. Reports suggest the move blindsided the board at HP, where Lores has spent over 30 years. While Lores is credited with stabilizing HP and navigating a complex PC market, his leap to a fintech company facing an identity crisis is a gamble.

In a prepared statement, Lores leaned into the challenge: "The payments industry is changing faster than ever... PayPal sits at the center of this change, and I look forward to leading the team."

The "Fast Lane" Dead End?

Alex Chriss was brought in from Intuit in late 2023 with a mandate to simplify PayPal and launch new features like "Fastlane" to speed up guest checkouts. While he cut costs and trimmed headcount, the top-line growth never materialized. The stock, which had struggled to find a floor, is now trading at multiples that look more like a legacy bank than a tech innovator.

Jamie Miller, PayPal’s CFO, will step in as interim CEO until Lores takes the reins in March. Her primary job will be managing investor sentiment as the stock faces its worst single-day selloff since the 2022 tech correction.