Christopher Payne, one of eBay’s most senior leaders, is leaving the company at year’s end, according to multiple sources. Payne ran the company’s core shopping marketplace business in North America.
eBay’s Head of North America Business Exits
Christopher Payne, who had led key business for eBay, will leave by year end.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
The change in leadership comes as eBay starts planning for the 2015 spinoff of its payments unit, PayPal. Payne reported to eBay Marketplaces President Devin Wenig, who will become CEO of eBay after its split with PayPal.
Payne did not immediately respond to LinkedIn and Facebook messages seeking comment. EBay said in a statement that Payne “has decided to leave eBay to pursue a new business venture.”
“A search for Christopher’s successor is under way,” the company added. “We are grateful to Christopher for all of his many contributions over the years and look forward to following his ongoing success.”
Payne joined eBay in 2009 after a software startup he founded was acquired by the company. He has spent the last four years in his current role, according to his LinkedIn bio. He has also spent more than 13 years at Microsoft and three years at Amazon.
One source says there will likely be other significant changes at eBay ahead of the PayPal split. The company is considering shedding up to 3,000 employees in layoffs, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
It has been a tough year for the eBay marketplace business. Earlier this year, the company was hit with a double whammy: A hack of shopper information and a penalty by Google that knocked a chunk of its pages out of search results. Marketplace revenue growth decelerated to six percent year over year in the third quarter, down from nine percent in the second quarter and 11 percent in the first quarter.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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