The connection between Skype and eBay has been anything but static free since the 2005 acquisition. In April, eBay chief executive John Donahoe told the Financial Times that if synergies didn't materialize soon, Skype could go on the block. In October 2007, eBay took a $1.8 billion write-down off Skype's $4.3 billion price tag, and the Skype unit has missed several performance milestones, letting eBay off the hook for about $1 billion in earnout payments.  

Donahoe took over for Meg Whitman, who spearheaded the complex deal to acquire Skype, taking plenty of heat in the process. In selling the deal to investors, Whitman said Skype's PayPal payment option would boost the auction business. But after the deal closed, some analysts claimed Whitman did little to get the engineering teams working together. 

On his Skype blog in August, Silverman announced a reorganization that included breaking the business into individual units that could respond more quickly to changing market conditions and adding talent such as Dean and Berg. In announcing those appointments, the company said it had more than 50 additional slots to fill. In this economy, that's a point worth highlighting. - Suzanne Stevens