Skype, acquired by eBay last month, has formed a new division, Skype North America to be headed by Henry Gomez, eBay's head of corporate communications. In addition, Alex Kazim, formerly senior vice president of new ventures at eBay, has joined Skype to take charge of several new business areas. Kazim was responsible for launching eBay's international classifieds sites, Kijiji. eBay had already announced its CFO, Rajiv Dutta, would become president of Skype worldwide once his successor is named.
eBay said Skype North America was established to better serve Skype users in the region. Gomez will report to Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom and will be responsible for all areas of the company's strategy and business in North America, including marketing, public relations, business development, product integration, and government relations.
Before joining Skype, Gomez had been senior vice president of corporate communications and government relations at eBay Inc., Skype's parent company, reporting to eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Gomez joined eBay in 2000 and had global responsibilities for public relations, community development, internal communications and government relations. He is chairman of the eBay Foundation, eBay's charitable giving organization.
"The opportunity to share talent was a big reason why Niklas and I agreed to the acquisition," said Meg Whitman, eBay President and CEO. "It's going to be exciting to watch Alex, Henry and Rajiv work together with Skype's already strong team. The powerful combination of talent should bring Skype even more success."
Canadian reporter Mark Evans blogged his prediction that Skype founders Nikas Zennstrom and Janus Friis might not be sticking around "given how Skype's management team is being eBay-ized" (http://evans.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/11/28/1425622.html).
