EBay Losses Ground and Executives

Ebay Incorporate has announced yesterday that one of its key executives plans to terminate his collaboration with the company. Jeff Jordan, president of eBay's PayPal payment business, gave no other reasons for his imminent departure other than personal ones, involving spending more time with his family. Up until his decision he coordinated eBay's North America division, and he was predicted to be CEO Meg Whitman's future successor. Jordan will be replaced by Rajiv Dutta whose role in the company as now is chief financial officer and head of strategy and president of Skype.

Jordan's departure comes as eBay enters an unfavorable context on the market facing fierce competition from Google and the Mountain View's new online payment service Google Checkout. Market analysts have expressed concerns about the ability of eBay to survive and continue in the same manner after Google has entered the market with a highly lucrative solution.

"We view the senior management changes announced today with concern as they come at a critical time for eBay as it seeks to stimulate growth in its core markets while integrating various acquisitions," wrote Lehman Bros. Analyst with Douglas Anmuth.
"EBay has very deep management bench strength," said CEO Meg Whitman, referring to her team as "a testament to the strong management team that's been built over the last five or six years."

"People will tell you that launching a payment service is complex," commented Dutta on analysts' reports on Google's strong and competitive position. "As with any competitor we will pay a lot of attention to what anyone does in this space."

The market reality is somewhat different than eBay's executives have presented it and it reflects in the fact that the company's shares fell $1.51, 5.3 percent, to $26.85 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.