EBay Inc hired former Thomson Reuters Corp executive Devin Wenig as president of its global marketplaces unit, the online commerce and auction site's largest division.

Wenig, 44, was chief executive of Thomson Reuters Markets, one of the company's top managers, before leaving in a shakeup of the division in July. At eBay, he will report to Chief Executive John Donahoe, the online auction and commerce site said on Tuesday.

As head of eBay Marketplaces, Wenig will oversee the namesake online marketplace, eBay classifieds sites in more than 1,000 cities and the secondary ticket website StubHub.

The position is one of the most important at eBay. Donahoe held it before he became CEO in March 2008.

Those of you that know me well know that I have always looked westward, to the excitement, innovation, and impact of Silicon Valley. I came close to going once before and always believed that there would come a time for me to do a turn in the Valley, Wenig wrote in an email.

Wenig led the integration of the unified Thomson Reuters Corp after Thomson bought Reuters in 2008, eBay said. At eBay, he will oversee the company's largest division, which generated more than 60 percent of revenue last year.

Still, the division lost market share in recent years as shoppers moved away from auctions as a way to buy online and competition from Amazon.com increased.

EBay is now trying to build the business into a broad supplier of technology and support for merchants' online and mobile-commerce efforts.

(Editing by Robert MacMillan)

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