Patriot Coal Corporation (PCX) was in focus Wednesday morning, thanks to some management shake-ups announced late Tuesday night. The company said that Paul Vining, who serves as president and chief operating officer, will step down effective immediately. However, Vining will do his part to ensure a smooth transition by staying on in a senior advisory role, potentially through the end of the year.

In order to fill the two roles left vacant by Vining, CEO Richard Whiting will now add the title of "president" to his resume. Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development Charles Ebetino Jr. scored a promotion to chief operating officer.

eBay shares lost 9 cents today to close at $34.32. That .26% drop was a lot less than the Nasdaq's .77% drop, so I'll call it a decent day for the volatile stock. The shares could have been off more, but in the last half hour of trading, the stock perked up. Could there be some bargain hunters coming in around the $34 mark?

Hitting the wires after the close was news that Chief Operating Officer Maynard Webb will be retiring in August. It sounds like Webb may have worked himself out of a job. The release notes, "eBay has no plans to fill Webb's role. Over the past year, Webb and Whitman oversaw the decentralization of many operational functions in order to better serve the business needs of the company's various platforms."

I couldn't find much in the blogosphere about this move yet, but TechFinancialNirvana noted last Friday that Webb was selling shares.