Taobao.com has confirmed that its vice president Huang Ruo, who was in charge of the B2C sector of the Internet auction and e-commerce company, will resign at the end of September 2008.

Huang has been the first high-level manager that will leave the company since the merger of Taobao.com and Alimama.com. On September 4, 2008, Alibaba Group announced plans to merge Taobao.com and Alimama.com, its auction and advertising subsidiaries, to achieve a greater synergy. Former president of Taobao.com Lu Zhaoxi will be president of the new Taobao company and former general manager of Alimama.com Wu Yongming will be vice president of the new company.

According to a report in Beijing Business Today, after the merger the new company will make a series of adjustments and the first step is to implement redundancies and reassignments, including cutting 300 jobs and reassigning 200 staff. However, Lu Weixing, spokesperson of Taobao.com, says it is only a rumor.

Huang says because of personal reasons, he will resign from Taobao.com at the end of September 2008, but he will still stay in the retail industry in the future.

Having worked in many large retail companies, including Lotus, Metro, and Beijing Hualian, Huang joined Taobao.com in June 2007.