As of April 1, eBay plans to sever ties with ValueClick's Commission Junction, which pays web publishers to drive bidders to eBay stores. eBay shall replace the service with its own Partner Network, according to the auction site. The move affects eBay sites around the world, but not other properties.

The eBay Partner Network will include targeted banners, rich media, landing page optimization and geo-targeting capabilities. eBay will also add more detailed reporting capabilities and continue using ValueClick's MediaPlex for ad serving, tracking and other custom projects.

Cutting out, or at least castrating, the middleman is nothing new. And in eBay's case, it may have been a long time coming. Amazon has had its own affiliate marketing subsidiary for years.

The change is one more among the many that followed John Donahoe's recent election as eBay CEO. Having perhaps learned from a recent decision to fiddle with the fee structure for sellers — which caused a strike — eBay has no plans to change the pricing structure for affiliates.