As you may know, Yahoo announced that PayPal President Scott Thompson is its new CEO. That means he’s no longer going to be President of PayPal. This isn’t going to be a Jack Dorsey-like situation, where he has prominent roles in two companies.
eBay CEO John Donahoe is taking over for Thompson at PayPal in the interim. eBay is sharing an internal memo that all PayPal employees received from Donahoe today. It says:
As you may already have seen, Yahoo! announced this morning that Scott Thompson is joining the company as CEO, effective immediately. Scott informed me Tuesday afternoon, saying that despite his passion for PayPal, this was an opportunity he felt he had to take. I know I speak for everyone in wishing Scott the best.
I will serve in the interim role as President and will be meeting with the PayPal leadership team this morning to plan a seamless transition. And while I’m sure Scott’s decision is a shock to many of you, as it was to me, there is one thing I am certain of: PayPal has an enormous opportunity in front of it and we will not slow down. We will not miss a beat. And we will continue driving the incredible momentum that each of you has helped to create.
PayPal had an outstanding 2011 and a strong close to the fourth quarter. PayPal’s vision is clear. Our strategies are set and we have a strong, focused leadership team in place. And across PayPal, we have you — an incredibly talented team, committed to creating the future of money and changing how the world shops and pays.
Let’s do it, and take this special business to the next level in 2012 and beyond.
Amanda Pires, with PayPal Global Communications, said: “Scott was a terrific leader for the PayPal business over the last seven years, and I know all of PayPal joins me in wishing Scott the best in his new role. He will be missed.”
Just before Christmas, eBay announced the acquisition of BillSafe, a purchase-on-invoice technology provider, which would be rolled into PayPal in Europe.
