In a blog post, Scott Guilfoyle, PayPal’s CTO, made the announcement and introduced the new head of the platform team, Matthew Mengerink.

But the departure of Bedier to Google is a big blow to PayPal, considering that both companies are racing to build next-generation payment platforms with a strong mobile component.

Bedier held the title of VP of platform and oversaw PayPal’s global payments platform, including mobile.

Mengerink is an internal replacement for the position, having worked at PayPal for 10 years. He previously led the PayPal architecture, infrastructure, payments development, core technologies, international development, customer quality and engineering services teams.

I will update when I hear more on what Bedier will be doing at Google.

Seifert isn’t even a candidate for the permanent position. And Meyer was talking up AMD at CES just last week.

“Dirk became CEO during difficult times,” AMD chairman Bruce Claflin said in a statement. “He successfully stabilized AMD….However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives.”

AMD reports fourth-quarter financial results Thursday.

The BlackBerry maker said it earned $911 million, or $1.74 per share, on revenue of $5.5 billion.

On average, analysts had said to expect around $5.4 billion in revenue and earnings around $1.64 or $1.65 a share.

However, shares of RIM initially slipped more than a dollar after the report, but then rebounded to levels above where they ended regular trading. Shares changed hands recently at $61.15, up $1.91, or more than 3 percent.

Looking forward, RIM said it expects revenue for the current quarter, which runs through February, to be between $5.5 billion and $5.7 billion, with similar margins to the just-ended quarter. Earnings are seen in the range of $1.74 to $1.80 per share.

The report and conference call are being closely watched, both because of all the competitive challenges facing RIM as well as the fact this is the last quarter the company plans to give out certain financial information.

For the just-ended quarter, RIM said it shipped 14.2 million BlackBerrys, up 40 percent from a year earlier. It said it added approximately 5.1 million net new subscribers in the quarter, bringing its base to more than 55 million. Both figures are among those RIM plans to stop sharing after this quarter.

The company also said that one of its directors, Jim Estill, has resigned “due to a business conflict” after 13 years on the board. Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will serve as co-chairmen with John Richardson remaining as lead independent director.

RIM’s conference call starts at 2 pm PT and Mobilized will have live coverage. One thing to watch will be whether the company expects an impact at Verizon from the expected arrival of the iPhone. Motorola warned last week that it expects to see its shipments to Verizon take a hit.

An inevitability, I suppose. But one that’s evidently approaching quite rapidly. Word of Schwartz’s impending departure comes as Oracle gears up for a Wednesday event at which it plans to reveal its strategy for Sun.

When he was appointed CEO in April 2006, Schwartz was charged with restoring Sun to its glory days. Sadly, he was unable to do it. And while he came up with some some inventive strategies–buying MySQL, open-sourcing Java, and Solaris–none were of much benefit to Sun financially. So now, with the former Silicon Valley icon about to become another acquisition notch in Oracle’s belt, Schwartz is leaving.

But he’s leaving with his pockets full. According to Sun’s definitive proxy statement, Schwartz stands to earn about $12 million from the severance package he negotiated, plus another $5.1 million or so for the shares he still holds in the company.

“Go, Oracle,” indeed.

Sun declined a request for comment.

FURTHER READING:

• Departing Sun Co-Founder to Employees: Kick Butt and Have Fun!
• Sun CEO: Go Oracle, Beat IBM [Internal Memo]
• EU Approves Oracle-Sun Deal
• EU Poised to Approve Oracle-Sun Deal
• Oracle Sack Half of Sun’s Workforce? Ridiculous, Says Sun.
• Q: What’s the Difference Between Neelie Kroes and Larry Ellison?
• Ellison: Oracle Is the New IBM
• Oracle: IBM, Come Out to Play-ee-ay
• Mr. Ellison Asks That His Burgers Be Served With Freedom Fries Until Further Notice

“Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple’s board of directors. Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.”

–Apple CEO Steve Jobs, August 2006

“Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire. I’m really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing.”

–Google CEO Eric Schmidt, August 2006

Asked earlier this year if he would resign from Apple’s board in the face of Federal Trade Commission scrutiny of the close ties between the two companies’ boards of directors, Google CEO Eric Schmidt replied simply, “It hasn’t crossed my mind.”

Well, apparently it has now.

Citing the growing overlap of the two companies’ businesses, Schmidt is giving up his seat on Apple’s board, which he has held since August 2006.

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

“I have very much enjoyed my time on the Apple board,” Schmidt said in a statement of his own. “It’s a fantastic company. But as Apple explained today we’ve agreed it makes sense for me to step down now.”

A wise move. Schmidt’s boardroom role was already reduced because of competitive issues between the iPhone and Android and between Safari and Chrome. Given the obvious competitive issues between the Mac and Google operating systems, it is inevitable that his board involvement would shrink again. Had he retained his seat, Schmidt would have likely spent more time standing outside Apple’s boardroom than in it.

So why bother? Better to step down and avoid the appearance of impropriety, especially when regulators seem to be singling Google (GOOG) out for all manner of scrutiny. Certainly, Apple (AAPL) must be relieved to have the guy with the FTC target on his back out of the boardroom.

And relations between the two companies must have been a bit strained by this Google Voice for iPhone debacle.