eBay appoints new Skype and Shopping.com CEOs
Silverman will join Skype on March 24, 2008 and report directly to John Donahoe, President and CEO-elect of eBay Inc.
Michael van Swaaij, who was appointed interim CEO in October 2007, will stay actively involved with Skype.
“We're honoured and excited to welcome Josh to Skype as CEO. He has an outstanding track record of entrepreneurial leadership and managing diverse, fast-growing businesses,” said Donahoe. “We look forward to working with him as Skype continues to innovate and build out its next stage of growth."
“I am very pleased to be joining Skype's dynamic team at this important time in the company's history,” said Silverman. “Skype is an incredibly exciting company. Our opportunities are tremendous as we continue to bring Skype to more people around the world, while finding new ways to add value and helping users continue to set their conversations free using Skype."
Skype is leading the way in providing new and easy ways to stay in touch over the internet though voice and video calling. The company has grown phenomenally since it was founded in 2003, and was acquired by eBay Inc. in September 2005.
Today, the company has more than 276 million registered users around the world. In Q4 2007, it posted total revenues of115 million, an increase of 76% over the prior year, while delivering a fourth consecutive quarter of segment profitability.
Skype recently announced that since the company was launched in 2003, users around the world have now talked to one another for more than 100 billion minutes using free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls.
Silverman is currently serving as CEO of Shopping.com and oversees the strategic direction of one of the world's most popular shopping comparison sites.
Prior to joining Shopping.com, he held a variety of leadership roles at eBay, including General Manager for Marktplaats.nl. He was also responsible for helping to build eBay's extremely successful classifieds businesses in Europe.
Before joining eBay in 2003, Silverman was co-founder and CEO of Evite, the leading social event planning web site.
Succeeding Silverman as Shopping.com CEO is another eBay veteran, Andre Haddad. Haddad joined the company in 2001, when eBay acquired iBazar, a leading European online marketplace he co-founded and successfully ran in Paris.
Haddad brings to his new role a strong entrepreneurial and general management background, a passion for the customer experience, and vast eBay business and product knowledge, both in North America and internationally.
Most recently, Haddad served as Senior Vice President of Product at eBay. His expertise will be essential to continuing Shopping.com's growth as a leading comparison shopping site. Haddad will also be leading eBay's consumer electronics business.
“Shopping.com is a pioneer in online comparison shopping and is one of the fastest growing shopping destinations on the Internet,” said Haddad.
“I'm thrilled to be joining such an exciting company and look forward to building on the strong foundation that Josh and the Shopping.com team have established."
“It's a testament to our deep talent pool that we can fill these positions internally,” said Donahoe. “We couldn't be more pleased to have Josh and Andre taking on such critical leadership roles. Their deep expertise in building and leading fast growth companies combined with their history at eBay makes them the ideal leaders for the Skype and Shopping businesses."
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