SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Months after billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn challenged eBay Inc. to spin off its PayPal electronics business, a report on Thursday suggested the online e-commerce giant may be considering such a move.

A report in The Information cited sources saying that eBay EBAY, -0.06% has told candidates to become PayPal’s chief executive that it is looking at spinning off the business, possibly in early 2015. EBay shares rose almost 4.7% to close at $55.89 following the report.

Asked abut a separation of PayPal, Amanda Miller, an eBay spokeswoman, said the company’s “position has not changed” with regard to anything that would maximize value for eBay’s shareholders.

“As we discussed during proxy season and in our [second-quarter] financial results call, the board will continue to assess all alternatives to create that long-term value and to enhance the growth and competitive positions of both eBay and PayPal,” Miller said.

EBay last month reported $4.37 billion in total revenue for the second quarter. Some $1.95 billion came from PayPal, a 20% jump from a year ago. EBay’s other main business, Marketplaces, brought in $2.17 billion in revenue, up 9% from a year earlier.

Earlier this year, eBay came under attack from Icahn, who owns about 2% of the company’s stock, for what he called mismanagement on the part of CEO John Donahoe and other eBay executives. Icahn in March pushed for eBay spinning of 20% of PayPal in a public stock offering, but dropped a planned proxy fight in April after eBay agreed to bring Icahn ally and CVS Caremark Corp. CVS, +1.98% Chairman David Dorman onto its board.

Kerry Rice, an analyst who covers eBay for Needham & Co., said the possibility of eBay spinning off PayPal “seems at odds with management’s argument about separating the two businesses as argued by Icahn,” but there may be a sense that the two are mature enough to stand on their own without significant harm to revenue growth.

“Payments [PayPal] has and continues to perform better than eBay’s Marketplaces business, so maybe management had a change of heart and believes that more value could be unlocked if the businesses were separated,” Rice said.