A person claiming to be a disgruntled eBay (EBAY) Eachnet employee in China has been spreading information around the Internet that eBay.com is soon to announce a deal that may have the company working with Tom.com and that PayPal is doing some dubious China dealings.
ChinaTechNews.com received an email from a person claiming to be the disgruntled employee over the weekend, but neither the sender or eBay's headquarters in the United States have confirmed the identity of the sender or the veracity of the email message.
The messages say that Solina Chau, an associate of Li Ka-Shing, and a major shareholder of Tom.com, recently invested in wireless payment platform UMPay. Ebay's Paypal is supposedly planning to invest US$105 million into UMPay to buy Chau out, in what some say might be construed as a business bribe.
Jay Chang, the company's CFO, has apparently sent in his resignation letter, and chief Wang LeiLei is rumoured to be leaving soon too because they apparently don't feel like eBay is doing the right thing.
eBay's other apparent partnership is a 49:51 joint venture with online portal and wireless operator Tom Online to develop and operate eBay's online marketplace in China.
Alibaba's Taobao.com has been putting increasing pressure on eBay, which seems to have lost its way, users, and revenue in China, and Taobao.com now ranks as the top auction website in China.
The message sent to ChinaTechNews.com was also sent to other websites in China, in what may be the work of either a disgruntled employee, a case of stock manipulation, or a whistleblower.