Patti Hart stepped down from the Yahoo! board of directors because she was the one that vetted Thompson for the job. Thompson worked at eBay subsidiary PayPal before joining Yahoo! eBay CEO John Donahoe lent his words of support to Thompson, but also said that eBay’s legal filings of his bio were always correct even if their website and PR documents being handed out were not.

“I think Scott Thompson did a great job at PayPal. I think he’s a very talented leader and I believe he can help Yahoo. I hope they get through this and he can continue to do the very challenging job he’s got of helping to turn Yahoo around. I’m Scott’s biggest fan,” said Donahoe.

Below is a letter from Loeb:
Third Point May 9 Letter Release

Marcus’ first company was a telecommunications company called GTN in 1996, which was acquired by World Access in 2000. That same year he launched Echovox, a mobile media monetization company that allowed large media companies to connect with their mobile audiences. Zong spun out of Echovox and offered a mobile payments platform. After PayPal acquired Zong last year, Marcus became VP of Mobile Payments at PayPal.

PayPal processed $4 billion in mobile payment transactions last year and they expected $7 billion in mobile payment volume in 2012. Marcus has been hard at work to create a Square-like mobile payments hardware and software platform.

The app has a “Scan Card” where the iPhone uses the camera to read the credit card number if the dongle is not available. The merchant would still need the CVV and zip code for this feature to use. The app accepts any credit card or debit card. It can also be used for tracking cash payments.

The card reader and app is encrypted. PayPal is offering both for free, but they will charge a flat rate of 2.7%. PayPal says that the free debit card it offers will give 1% cash back, which makes the effective rate 1.7% if you use that card. PayPal Here will be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong started today.

[CNET]

eBay’s homepage will provide recommendations that are based on previous searches. There will also be a list of the hottest items being sold. “We have been responsible in driving pretty aggressive change,” stated Donahoe. “I always want to go faster.”

[Wall Street Journal]

Norrington was credited for lowering the initial fees charged to sellers, helping buyers find top-rated sellers, and starting the Daily Deals section. eBay launched the Buyer Protection plan in the U.S. and the U.K. of this year, which reimburses a buyer the purchase price and shipping fees if the item is not received as described by the seller.

[CNET]

eBay will receive about $1.9 billion cash when the deal is complete along with a $125 million note in principal from the buyers.  eBay itself will retain 35% in Skype.  The transaction is expected to be complete by the fourt quarter of this year.

“This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype,” stated eBay President and CEO John Donahoe in a press release. “We’ve acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners. Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum.”

Back in April, eBay said that they were planning on spinning Skype into its own brand and preparing a separate IPO for the VoIP company.  Now it is assumed these investors that took control of Skype will work together in preparing the IPO.  This gives eBay the ability to focus all of their energy on their own company and on PayPal.

How much money does Skype make?
In 2008, Skype itself made $551 million in revenue which was a 44% increase from the year before.  eBay’s total revenues for 2008 was $8.5 billion.

How many users does Skype have?
By EOY 2008, Skype had about 405 million users which was a 47% increase from the year before.

PayPal made about $1.8 billion in revenue in 2007 while eBay’s total revenues were $7.7 billion.  This means PayPal made about 23.3% of eBay’s 2007 revenues.  Over the last year eBay made about $8.5 billion in revenues and I believe that PayPal made over 25% of that revenue.

PayPal also recently opened up APIs to developers.  Donahoe said that the company is not far off from the day that a restaurant will beam a bill to your mobile phone and gives the consumer the ability to pay using PayPal.

“Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum,” stated eBay President and CEO, John Donahoe. “But it’s clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications. In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines—e-commerce and online payments—and deliver long-term value to our stockholders.”

Below are some of Skype’s stats:
- 2008 revenue: $551 million, 2007 revenue: roughly $382 million
- Number of Skype users: 405 million by the end of 2008
- 2011 expected revenue: $1 billion
- Josh Silverman will now be the head of Skype.

Recently Skype created an iPhone application and millions of people were downloading it as soon as it came out.  Over 1 million people downloaded it within the first 36 hours.

[via eBay press release]