marc andreessenMarc Andreessen said he is stepping down from eBay’s board months after shareholder activisit Carl Icahn was seeking a similar change to the board.

Now, the two exact things that Icahn was demanding in February have come to fruition: eBay is spinning off PayPal and changes have been made at the board level.

In a press release issued by eBay, Andreessen said the timing was right.

“It’s been an absolute privilege to serve with John, Pierre, and team, and I could not be more proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Andreessen said. “I have complete confidence in John and the board to lead eBay and PayPal through the process of embarking on independent paths in 2015.”

EBay’s outgoing president and CEO John Donahoe, said: “Marc has been an extraordinary board member, and we greatly appreciate the leadership, insight and expertise he has provided over the past six years. He has provided invaluable support to me, the board and the entire company.”

In February, Icahn wrote a letter to eBay shareholders, calling eBay’s corporate governance “dysfunctional,” and asked shareholders to vote for a new slate of directors, so that changes could be made, including spinning off PayPal.

Icahn was most enraged about eBay’s sale of Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. He said 18 months before the $8.5 billion sale to Microsoft, eBay sold a controlling stake in Skype to Silver Lake for only $1.9 billion. He considered it a conflict that Andreessen was both a director at eBay and a Silver Lake owner at the time.

Andreessen, who is also a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and a prolific tweeter, also said a few words on Twitter about his departure:

https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/524124180829073409

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