A few months ago, I started wondering about eBay's chief executive, Meg Whitman. It occurred to me that her tenure was growing old, and I speculated about whether she might step down in the next 12-18 months.

Today, I'm even more concerned about eBay's management team. The company has been rapidly losing all the bright stars who shone in my investing galaxy when I first decided to buy eBay back in 2000. Forbes has an illuminating look at the brain drain at PayPal, recently capped off by news that Jeff Jordan would be stepping down "for family reasons." Jordan, an executive that I met a few years before he took over as CEO of PayPal, is a charismatic, slick, management consultant type: in short, exactly the sort of person Meg has always preferred. As she said in her statement regarding his departure, Jordan is a friend.

Jeff Jordan's not the only friend Meg Whitman has lost. Maynard Webb, her longtime friend and eBay COO, retires next month, as I noted earlier. It's hard to say whether the other PayPal execs mentioned in the Forbes article had time to become friendly with Meg, but it's certain that their departure can't be a good thing. Instead of infusing life into eBay, they're out setting trends and making news at companies like YouTube (Chad Hurley), Slide (Max Levchin) and LinkedIn (Reid Hoffman), or directing oodles of money at hedge funds and venture capital firms.

5.32% or $1.51 - that's how much eBay was down today, closing at $26.85.

This morning started with an announcement that shocked and rocked eBay Inc. investors: a management shakeup amongst eBay's highest ranking officers. Many appointments and reshuffling were made, but what investors cared about was Jeff Jordan leaving the presidency of PayPal. Rajiv Dutta, current president of Skype was named as taking Jordan's place while Alex Kazim would be taking on Skype's presidency.

None of this sat well with investors, especially losing Jeff Jordan. I speculated about possible scenarios that led to this shakeup or that might come out of it, but I wasn't the only one who couldn't understand the "planned move" as many analysts such as UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter commented that this move is disconcerting.

From early morning, another analyst report wasn't helping eBay stock recover. Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney noted that after a full comparative product analysis, Checkout will present a greater challenge to eBay's PayPal than is widely thought. While Mahaney maintained a "Buy" rating on eBay, he lowered his 12-month target price to $40 from $51, also dropping growth estimates.

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.

Nah, he's not scared of Google. Not at all. Bring it on, says PayPal's chief executive Jeff Jordan in response to questioning about how eBay's payment service will compete with Google's rumored GBuy service.

Well, that's not exactly what he said. He actually said, "We respect their entry and stand ready to compete," according to this Dow Jones news story. He also admitted that eBay had heard that Google planned to launch a competing service to PayPal's.

In a note last Friday, Jordan Rohan of RBC Capital Markets put the date of June 28 on Google's GBuy launch, setting the blogosphere abuzz. (See our take on it, "Google's GBuy program could challenge eBay's Paypal.") Rohan says GBuy will focus on consumer-merchant transactions, not consumer-consumer, as PayPal does (but that could change easily). He also said Google probably wouldn't charge initially for its service.

Competing with a free Google service? No problem, right Jeff? Not at all.