For the longest time it was believed that Jeff Jordan was going to be eBay's next CEO, Meg Whitman's successor. Jordan was a major driving force behind the PayPal acquisition, which turned out to be one of eBay's best sources of growth and revenue.

This morning, eBay Inc. (EBAY) announced that Jordan will be leaving in the fall to spend more time with his family and that Rajiv Dutta, currently Skype's president, will take his place as PayPal's president.

Jordan took Google's Checkout threat seriously and outlined strategies for PayPal to combat the Google threat. Among them were accelerating development of products (such as PayPal Mobile and virtual debit card - still to come), acquisitions (such as the Verisign acquisition last October) and partnerships (such as the Yahoo! partnership announced in May).

I think PayPal is losing a good strategic manager in Jordan while Rajiv Dutta, formerly eBay CFO, was regarded a "numbers guy" before his appointment as Skype president last October. Has he had enough time to turn strategic and will he be able to to compete in a market place where Google is PayPal's new competitor?

While we have to wait and see, I believe Dutta, with some guidance from Jordan who will only leave in the fall, is up for the job. However, investors may not be as trusting, especially with the Skype acquisition still questioned as a good move by many. I do expect eBay shares to take a hit today.

Other management changes announced: Alex Kazim - president of Skype, Henry Gomez - chief marketing officer and director of country operations worldwide for Skype, a newly created role, Lorrie Norrington - president of eBay International, effective immediately, Matt Bannick - head of eBay's initiatives in corporate philanthropy and the developing world.