Google Scares eBay Into Changes

PayPal's president has been replaced by Skype's president, while eBay drops Google Checkout into the laundry list of alternative payment services banned by the online marketplace.

WebProWorld You might be able to get "It" on eBay, but you won't get it with announced some changes in senior management after the markets closed on Wall Street yesterday. The shuffling resembled a game of "musical corner offices," but when the music stopped playing, it was PayPal president Jordan left out of the game. Jordan's departure from the company has been disclosed as a "planned departure." eBay CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement that she is sorry to see her close friend go. It will be interesting to see where Jordan ends up post-eBay. A year ago, he was noted that eBay had officially changed its Accepted Payments policy to ban Google Payment as an option. Steiner also said eBay changed the name of the policy from Safe Payments to Accepted Payments this week. That move looks like a tweak to avoid offending Google and its legal team, since eBay has had no problem implying smaller payment services were not safe. Our Jason Lee Miller As part of the executive shakeup, Rajiv Dutta, who only moved up to the Skype job earlier in 2006, will take over Jordan's responsibilities as president of PayPal. EBay noted Skype VP of Products Alex Kazim will get Dutta's former Skype gig. A new role created for Skype, Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Country Operations Worldwide, will be occupied by Henry Gomez. He will ascend from general manager for Skype North America. Meanwhile, Lorrie Norrington shifts from president and CEO of Shopping.com to president of eBay International. She will have responsibility for all of eBay's international sites as well as the Shopping.com comparison site. Whitman praised the leadership abilities of the newly shuffled executives. Now it's up to Google to actually challenge eBay by doing something with Checkout, Base, Froogle, and all the other pieces of a potential marketplace it has already. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.