Alex Kazim, who has been president of Skype for the past 14 months will step down and return to eBay, the company announced Friday. Henry Gomez, Skype’s chief marketing officer, will replace him after his January 2007 departure.

The management reshuffle most likely indicates a vote of confidence on the part of eBay’s top management that its newly acquired property is ready to fly solo, analysts say. “It seems like (Mr. Kazim’s) job is done and they need him more at home now,” said Tim Boyd, an analyst at Caris & Company. “It’s a good sign.”

An eBay executive, Mr. Kazim joined Skype in November 2005, having taken up the post following eBay’s acquisition of the Luxemburg, Belgium-based communications firm for $2.6 billion. Ebay’s management has taken heat for the deal, which many called overpriced and not well suited to integration with the auction site.

This is a key moment for Skype, the online communication division of San Jose, California-based eBay to prove itself. This week, it announced it will charge users for phone calls on the Skype system. (See: Can Skype Go From Free To Fee?)

It is also said to be developing partnerships with such players as Google and Yahoo. This would most likely involve a Skype link that connects customers to local retailers. If successfully rolled out, this could prove Skype’s most profitable venture yet, and a feather in eBay’s cap, said Mr. Boyd.

The Luxemburg-based company—whose CEO and co-founder Nicklas Zennstrom, and fellow co-founder Janus Friis will remain in the same roles—has grown fast over the past year. Registered users rose to 136 million this year, from 54 million in 2005. Revenues are projected to more than triple in 2006, from $60 million in 2005 to $195 million this year.

Incoming Skype president, Mr. Gomez, is also an eBay veteran. He has been serving as chief marketing officer at the company, having originally been brought in to build out Skype’s North American operations.

“We need to put the right people in right jobs … we see this as being normal for where Skype is in terms of its growth path,” said Imogen Bailey, spokeswoman for Skype.

The management change follows an announcement on Wednesday that Skype charge customers for some uses on its system. The annual fee of $29.95 per year to make outgoing calls from computers to phones on is Skype’s first attempt at charging customers. How it pans out will determine how much loyalty its 136 million registered users have in the system.