Analysts see risks for eBay

SAN JOSE, Calif. — EBay Inc. faced a double blow Thursday as it announced a key executive’s plans to leave and an analyst said Google Inc.’s new online payment service represents a bigger threat than expected to the Internet auction company’s health.

Jeff Jordan, who most recently was president of eBay’s PayPal payment business, led eBay’s North America division from 2000 to 2004 and had been presumed by some analysts as the likely successor to Chief Executive Meg Whitman. He said in an interview that he wants to spend more time with his wife and two children.

He will be replaced by Rajiv Dutta, who has been with the company since 1998, serving as chief financial officer, head of strategy and president of Skype, the Internet phone service eBay acquired last year.

The disclosure of Jordan’s plans came the same day that another analyst, Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney, cut his earnings growth estimates for eBay, based on his analysis of Google Checkout, an online payments service unveiled last week. Mahaney slashed his target price for eBay to $40 from $51.

Mahaney said he found Checkout, which Google unveiled last week and has been under development for less than a year, to be faster, easier and less expensive to use than PayPal.

“Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to close an undisclosed number of offices worldwide over the next four years to cut real estate costs.

The Palo Alto-based company, which has already disclosed plans to cut jobs and reduce the number of sites used to store crucial computer data, is still deciding which locations to close, spokesman Ryan Donovan said.

Sites that remain open will be those likely to be occupied by employees over a number of years, house large numbers of employees or groups that generate high amounts of revenue, Donovan said. Others will be kept open for legal reasons or if they have another special purpose, he said.

He declined to say how much HP expected to save by the move but said some of the savings would be poured into updating offices that are kept open.

“Northwest Airlines flight attendants voted to switch unions on Thursday, just as talks with the airline enter what could be their final days.

The Professional Flight Attendants Association said its members voted to drop it so they can join the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America.