PayPal today announced that it has completed its separation from eBay and is now an independent public company trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol "PYPL." The company's leadership team joined with employees and merchants to push the iconic PayPal button to ring the opening bell at Nasdaq and mark the milestone, according to a press release. 

"As the world's open, digital payments platform and most trusted and popular digital wallet, we are excited to celebrate our listing day and embark on our next chapter,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO at PayPal. "Mobile technology is transforming payments, making it easier, safer and more affordable for people to move and manage their money than ever before. As an independent company, we see a tremendous opportunity for PayPal to expand our role as a champion for consumers and partner to merchants, and to help shape the industry as money becomes digital at an increasingly rapid pace."

Under the terms of the separation, on July 17, stockholders who held eBay common stock at the close of business on July 8, 2015 (the "record date") received a distribution of one PayPal common share for every one share of eBay common stock held as of the record date. No fractional shares of PayPal were distributed.

PayPal previously was listed on the Nasdaq under the same ticker symbol — PYPL — before it was acquired by eBay Inc. in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

"We'd like to thank our friends at eBay for their tremendous support and partnership over the past 12-plus years," Schulman said.