Carl Icahns campaign to convince eBay Inc to spin off its PayPal payments service will intensify in the run-up to eBays shareholders meeting in May, eBays chief executive said on Thursday, warning employees to ignore the noise. EBay CEO John Donahoe and directors of the Internet retailer have traded barbs with Icahn on a near-daily basis since the activist investor first expressed his view that spinning off PayPal would create shareholder value. EBay has said that the fast-growing payments service works best when integrated with the companys core retail business. Its easy to say when youre sitting on the outside, Oh, simplistically separate, and well do some short-term financial maneuvering to drive the share price up. Icahn, who owns just over 2 percent of eBay, has sparred with eBay management via open letters and press releases since January, when the pugnacious billionaire made an unsolicited proposal for eBay to spin off PayPal.