Mr Rose, an American, said that he was stepping down from the post to rejoin his family in the United States. As an executive at a sales and marketing company, he decided that he could not devote sufficient time to QXL, which is embroiled in a legal dispute involving its Polish business.

The company’s shares, the best-performing shares on the FTSE last year, rose 250p to £115 yesterday.

Mr Rose had spent five years at QXL. He had once said that he developed most of his managerial skills while at high school in Chicago, when he ran six KFC franchises.

His resignation came only a week after the company had reported that revenues had jumped 53 per cent as it curbed its losses.

Mr Rose will be replaced temporarily by Bruce McInroy, a non-executive director, while QXL searches for a permanent appointment.

The auctioneer was expected to post its first annual pre-tax profits in three years when it released results this year. QXL was once valued at £1.5 billion, giving Tim Jackson, the founder and a former journalist with the Financial Times, a paper fortune of more than £400 million.

Investors in the company included Apax Partners, the private equity firm. QXL sells a variety of goods, ranging from stamps to toys. It operates in nine European countries, with its largest markets in Norway, Denmark and Switzerland.

It has ten staff in the UK and another 130 on the Continent.

• Amazon.com shares slumped as much as 12 per cent yesterday after the online retailer reported that fourth-quarter profit fell 43 per cent from a year earlier, as costs rose and sales were less than expected.

  Quarterly sales rose 17 per cent to $2.98 billion (£1.7 billion), less than the $3.08 billion expected by analysts, in a quarter that was typically the strongest for retailers due to Christmas trading.

  Amazon reported net income of $199 million, or 47 cents a share, down from $347 million, or 82 cents a share, from a year earlier, when the firm had a larger tax benefit.

  The company’s latest results, released on Thursday night, were boosted by a $38 million tax gain. A year earlier, however, the company’s tax benefit was $239 million.

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