Meg Whitman back at eBay…briefly!
As you may know, I was roaming Silicon Valley last week, and on Friday, I landed at eBay (EBAY) — the “Whitman Campus,” as the headquarters is now called. Seeing that tribute to Meg Whitman made me smile as I drove in. She built the company practically from scratch to $7.7 billion in revenues in only 10 years. Whitman retired as CEO in March. But on Friday, there she was back at eBay, popping in for a surprise party for general counsel Mike Jacobson, who was celebrating both his birthday and his 10th anniversary at the company that day.
I was talking with a couple of senior execs, eBay North America boss Stephanie Tilenius and eBay Marketplaces chief Lorrie Norrington in the Bobblehead Room — where tiny bobblehead figurines of Richard Nixon, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meg Whitman were on display. New PR head Alan Marks, whom I’ve known for years as he’s moved from the Gap (GPS) to Nike (NKE) to eBay, suggested that we visit Whitman two buildings over.
On the way (and in the spirit of bobbleheads), I mentioned that when I did an eBay cover story in 2004, one board member told me that eBay’s next CEO would likely be someone who could be drawn as a cartoon character. (Seriously. The logic being that eBay’s CEO needs to be a friendly, recognizable figure.) “Dennis the Menace,” Marks replied, explaining that Whitman’s successor, John Donahoe, looks like Dennis the Menace.
He does, though much, much taller. We stopped by to see him and Whitman in the Dennis the Menace room, which is the name of Donahoe’s personal conference space. We chatted briefly, and I remarked to Whitman something I’ve noticed about the Valley these days: that the next generation of women leaders after her all seem to know each other and even hang out together, as opposed to the old guard. She agreed, adding that she “kinda sorta” knew Carly Fiorina and a bunch of other former women leaders in tech. “With us, it was heads down,” Whitman said of her generation.
Isn’t it interesting that the two women who dominated Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list for eight years of its 10-year history are now both working for John McCain, hoping he’ll be the next U.S. President? Whitman co-chairs the McCain campaign, while Fiorina, who headed Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) from 1999 until her 2005 ouster, is the RNC Victory chair and a key McCain advisor. I didn’t ask Whitman about her political aspirations. But I’ll bet that if McCain doesn’t win and give these women key roles in the next Administration, they’ll square off against each other in another very public and competitive arena: the 2010 contest for governor of California. Do you think either Whitman or Fiorina could win?
This question is for J J. Donahoe. Stop the hiding and the spin and answer questions directly.
Investors question why Ebay would be buying a credit company and pushing more credit in bad financial times like this. If people are gonna be able to buy thru Ebay and not have to pay for things, what if they decide they don’t want the item. Who’s gonna eat the deal now. The customer hasn’t paid for it yet. Will ebay absorb the loss and follow thru after the buyer like most credit agencies or will Ebay/paypal find it much easier to once again stick it to the honest seller like they frequently have in the past? I guess we are gonna have to read the fine print here again. It looks to be all about greed and money here once again. firing employee’s in tough times and at the same time spending 945 million to buy more companies. Can you see what’s happening here? Does Ebay INC really care about anybody but themselves?
“eBay to trim global workforce by 10%
World’s largest online auction site says cuts will affect about 1,000 of its worldwide employees” Last Updated: October 6, 2008: 8:35 AM ET”
…………………………………
EBay buys Bill Me Later for $945 million; buys Danish online classfieds sites, too
October 06, 2008: 09:14 AM EST
…………………………………
Stock drops to a new low this monday morning down another $1.46 cents a share to $17.48 cents a share early in the morning
RE: Article on 911 September 11th 2008 CNN Money POST…………………….
……………QUOTE……………….
‘Mad Money Lightning Round’:
eBay (EBAY Quote – Cramer on EBAY – Stock Picks):
“No. Ebay has lost touch with reality and the company is hapless.
They ought to sell themselves to someone. ”
Today,Friday September 12th, 2008 Ebay Stock continues to stumble to another new LOW at closing in advance of
“MORE NEW EBAY POLICY” PUSH PAYPAL PAPERLESS POLICY with NEW
ABUSIVE BUYER INCENTIVES AND PROTECTIONS come October 2008.
Along with the new lobsided feedback system which encourages Abusive buyer BLACKMAIL,EXSTORTION,Fraud,etal against good honest unprotected and vulnerable Ebay Sellers that are still sticking it out till the end. What A Shame. Ebay WAS a wonderful and fun place to shop and sell. “WAS”
“She built the company practically from scratch” -Wrong.
The company was already making money and an early internet superstar. Maybe the reason the founder Pierre Omidyar and 1st company president Jeffrey Skoll are billionaires is because they set up such a good company. Unfortunately, the company has been practically standing still while the internet has moved on. Wasting billions on things like Skype are indicative of Whitman’s incompetence and mismanagement. When she leaves I’ll look @ there stock again. Thank god for Amazon! To quote Silicon Alley “If ever there was a business that mostly grew itself it was eBay”
Despite huge volume of trading today, Thursday September 4th 2008 and yet another anouncement by Ebay Inc.of despiration giving j.j. Donahoe a newly announced Ebay VP. Mark Carges, to maybe try and shape up j j’s mess, Ebay stock closes at 1 cent off it’s lowest value of the day and at it’s lowest overall value seen in quite some time. “MAD MONEY LIGHTENING ROUND” say’s quote: EBAY IS IN TROUBLE 09/03/08 7:27pm EDT (EBAY – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr): “no, no, no. Volume is declining and I can’t get behind it. That one is trouble.” I say : Solution is to mend the relationship with the customers ( SELLERS) For some reason or another Mr. Donahoe seems to think that he does’nt need his customers. He has created a real mess and it’s scheduled to get worse in October 2008. He won’t listen to the loyal Customers that built Ebay. What a shame. Maybe now they will listen to their investors. Let’s all try and cross our toe’s on that note.
Read comments posted below and you’ll get a better idea of what is really happening at EBAY INC
“TO LITTLE , TO LATE” Afterhours, The day “Ebay Stock” expectedly crashes to near 52 week low ,yesterday, Corporate desperately announces the launching of a New Ebay Site called “Worldofgood.com”
in the efforts of “once again”reaching out to Ebay Stock Investors instead of mending wounds inflicted by Ebay Inc. upon the millions of Ebay customers “the Sellers” whom they have allienated so severely in
rescent months . Way to go, J.J. Donahoe !!!!!! You really think the stock investors are that stupid ???????
Openning another Business called “worldofgood” isn’t gonna do a “wholelottagood” because it’s settup to be more of the “same old story”. Since the Sellers know they can’t trust Ebay anymore, why do You think the Investors would be that stupid as to reinvest into the same Company that they just dumped out of ????? Remember,what goes around comes arround
and launching another business is not gonna fool the public . “Seller Beware”
Meg Whitman was being used for her money. Its laughable to think of Meg running for Governor of California. She has no skills whatsoever to be Governor.
Meg Whitman set ebay on it’s path of destruction, then ran out the door allowing JD to finish the job, so as not to sully her undeserved reputation. Meg’s no big ANYTHING…Meg just happened to be hired into a job, which the USERS popularized. A third grader could have just as easily sat in the CEO’s chair and reaped the glory from the users hard work.
ebay has become a dirty word due to ALL of the years of NEGLECTFUL management. Meg ignored users complaints of abuses, scammers, counterfeiters and the like. A CEO with ANY SKILLS would NOT have allowed those problems to continue!
Now ebay has enforced new policies, under the guise of making ebay “safer”, while those policies were, in FACT, implimented to create more, unchallenged revenue for they’re real “pet” business, Paypal. The new policies have only PRODUCED MORE SCAMMERS and those policies are actually PROTECTING AND PROMOTING the abusers using ebay AND Paypal.
Sellers who care about their businesses, reputation and income are fleeing ebay, at the same time ebay is welcoming the dishonest.
If ebay is an example of Meg’s “talents”, the citizens would be better served if she got a job at McDonalds.
“TRINKETS ONLY?” Will Ebay be offering expensive hard to find collectibles, antiques, paintings, sculptures, and so on to the Ebay buyers in the future?
Will it be worth the risk of the possible “total value loss to the seller” due to MORE NEW EBAY POLICY? Where’s the seller protection?
Sooner or later, all sellers selling expensive items on Ebay will be forced to offer their expensive valued merchandise in exchange for a 180 day (6 month) option for all ABUSIVE BUYERS to cheat sellers days or months later for any reason whatsoever when purchasing items thru the mandatory merchant account or “push pay pal” paperless program come October 2008.
Even if items are marked “as-is”, perfectly described, or noted “no return policy” , it won’t mean anything anymore. Sellers will now be required to except merchandise back within 45 days of purchase for whatever excuse the buyer has under the new policy terms of item not as described. Believe it or not it even gets worse. Pay pal will now not only snag the money for the item out of the sellers pay pal account, it will also now reimburse all shipping and handling costs to the buyer as an added bonus.
Now ABUSIVE BUYERS can purchase items thru PAYPAL that they may have had no intention of paying for, remove parts they need and then either return or not return item to seller, then filing a claim of not as described, missing parts, or lying that it was broken and force the seller to reimburse including the additional shipping and handling. If the seller legitimately complains about the ABUSIVE BUYER, he will then receive an UNPROTECTED NEGATIVE and all the buyer will get if seller takes the “uncompensated for “time and effort to prove the buyer was a fraudulent or abusive, according to: Clint from clint-us@ebay.com Aug-14-08 14:57 PDT 34 Quote: “We would reevaluate the case and, if we agreed that the buyer was at fault, we would flag them as an abusive buyer and prevent them from taking further advantage of the claim process.
Best regards,
Clint
FLAG THEM?? Are you kidding me????
WHAT KIND OF GARBAGE is that? WHERES MY MONEY??????
WHAT IS GONNA STOP THAT THIEF FROM DOING THE SAME THING TO ANOTHER SELLER USING SOMEONE ELSES USER ID or A NEW USER ID, or A DIFFERENT NAME ETC… THIS NEW POLICY MAY ENCOURAGE MORE THIEVES, FRAUD AGAINST GOOD HONEST SELLERS and put the final nail the coffin of EBAY.”
It sure doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how disastrous this new policy will be. You can see how well the new one-sided feedback system is working. Encouraging buyer dominance, black mail, control, and abuse over the seller.
Brilliant Mr.Donahue ??????????????????????????
It’s obvious we do not live in a perfect world. It never was and it never will be. There will always be the honest majority and the ones that are not. We also have laws in the land that punish the ones that steal from others without punishing the honest that do no wrong.(try telling Ebay that—ya right!!!—)
With regards to the EBAY COMMUNITY, the vast majority of sellers and buyers have always been honest, while the smaller portion of dishonest
sellers have been either thrown off Ebay while the dishonest buyers have caused a great financial loss to the sellers with their fraud, damage of merchandise , pay pal charge backs, causing uncalled for locked out paypal accounts, overdrafts , Ebay Suspensions, financial stress and much more causing good honest sellers to leave Ebay Community do to NO FAULT of their own other than agreeing to allowing the 180 reverse charge option which destroyed their Ebay business.
In the past, Honest Ebay Sellers had the option of selecting a safe form of payment for their value of merchandise exchanged which was really the American Way. They could select the form of payment that they were comfortable excepting which gave them GUARANTEED IMMEDIATE FUNDS with no future Unpleasant surprises. Money that was relied upon for sellers and their families to: pay bills, raise a family,go on vacation, save for the future or just go out and buy something else e.t.a.l. That WAS
truly the American Way and the Ebay Community offered this opportunity to the public. Perfect examples include: Postal Money Orders which are guaranteed immediate funds to the seller in exchange for immediate
shipping to the buyer with no hold time for funds to become available. Another example would be a simple personal check that once it cleared the bank the item was then safe to ship with funds in hand. For Overseas and in the States there is always the safe bank transfer option. These options mentioned above are especially desirable for larger ticket items
over $100.00 and up. Pay pal and Credit Card payments are only
desirable for speed and convenience with smaller ticket (LOWER RISK) items because the charge back option on them are easily absorbable and not as likely several months down the road. Besides, The scammers won’t hit the sellers on the little transactions, only on the substantially larger big-ticket items. Also in times like this where money is tighter, people think twice about what they just bought, recently bought that they realize that they either got their use out of it, desided they really didn’t need, money right now is more important than keeping it just to name a few examples. Given the temptation and opportunity to charge back an item for 6 months (180) days from purchase, unfortunately many good honest upfront sellers get stung on this example in the most unfair manner.
NOT ANYMORE…..STOP……LOOK…..LISTEN………………………………….
EBAY staff is now telling us sellers that we MUST OFFER THE OPTION
FOR ALL BUYERS TO EXCHANGE OUR VALUED MERCHANDISE FOR a 6 MONTH BUYER OPTION ! YES You know what that means? No GUARANTEE OF PAYMENT WITHOUT REVERSED CHARGES FOR 180 DAYS FROM DATE OF PURCHASE. This option gives the buyer all kinds of time for excuses as to why he or she doesn’t want the item anymore. On any large ticket item this could be disasterous results. NOW, WHERE DID AMERICAN WAY GO ?…GONE BYE BYE
MORE NEW EBAY POLICY
ABSOLUTELY NO MORE IMMEDIATE EXCHANGE OF VALUED MERCHANDISE FOR U.S. DENOMINATION FUNDS. When that large
charge back appears somewhere within the 180 days from purchase and the money is already by that time spent. IT’S ALL OVER and the EBAY/ PAYPAL system will have literally Destroyed EBAY SELLERS families lifestyle with absolutely no remorse whatsoever. Ebay’s track record has proven time and time again that they really don’t care what’s in the best interest of the Ebay Seller’s . They feel that there will always be enough sellers and their additude is like the boss that tells you if you don’t like it you
can leave and don”t let the door hit you in the rear end on the way out.
You’ve all heard the old saying, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”
I get the feeling EBAY has just modified that phrase to something like
this. “IF IT AIN’T BROKEN , KEEP SMACKING IT ARROUND REAL GOOD SO YOU KNOW THAT IT TRUELY IS BROKEN THIS TIME ”
MORE NEW EBAY POLICY
by looking at all the new policies that Ebay will be implimenting in September and October of 2008, I honestly, I totally agree with todays comments that Ebay is on the path to TOTAL DESTRUCION. I’ve been a member since 1998 and Ebay use to be a fun place to buy and sell not any more more. Their new policies will allow
ABUSIVE BUYERS a FREE RIDE to destroy
good honest sellers businesses. Ebay has always preached but not teached
“buyer beware” . Take a look at all the new policies : “no feedback
protection” “Paperless only” “push pay pal” just to name a few that definitely make Ebay a “SELLER BEWARE”
place.
I think everyone gives Meg too much credit. She came into eBay with a strong tail wind. Who couldn’t have succeeded with that force behind them.
As for Donahoe, he has not figured out that you can’t tick off your customers (yes, John, the sellers are your customers) and expect to succeed.
With or Without MEG, (which I miss her) EBAY is on the path to Total Destruction. Kinda reminds me of an old song. I don’t know who decides the factors in the STOCK MARKET (and I am sure, they’re PAID, by some unknown source!) , but their analysis is clearly wrong (Hold—- I Don’t think SO!, Sell and bail out now while there are some remnants left to get!!! As the saying goes, ” ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END” and this is the beginning of the END FOR EBAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least I bailed while the getting was good!
Meg would be a fabulous Governor! If she decides to run, she will win.
Well, it’s been revealed that Carly ain’t much of an asset for McCain. Afterall, she was fired after her failed attempt to organize HP into one company, as mentioned in this piece. As for Whitman, “right place, right time” as main point to the success of eBay being credited to her leadership? Seriously, she approved the annual fee hikes, and some years there were more “price changes.” eBay lost in Japan, they’ve retreated from China, and let’s not mention the SKYPE blunder. Without PayPal, eBay, Inc. is hemorrhaging dollars quarter after quarter. The brand name that was once a proud topic throughout the US among antique dealers, mom & pop shops, and even some of the bigger businesses, today is cluttered with items whose prices don’t compete even against retail sometimes. If any credit is given to Whitman, it should be that she was smart enough to turn over the wheel to Donahoe, although no greater the wrong man for the job than could ever be. The head of the consulting firm where she once was his colleague? He has no idea what made eBay special, nor has he made an ounce of an effort to baptize himself into that “secret sauce.” Shame on Meg for not indoctrinating that into him before she jumped shippped-errr retired!
Gubernatorial aspirations for these ladies in 2010? Newsome, Westley, or Feinstein are arguably hands down better leaders and politicians. Perhaps, philanthropy for Carly and Meg would be a noble field to enter considering the millions in bonuses each received upon termination and retirement?
Well California deserves both of them. Just keep them out of Michigan. We have enough problems.
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Patricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
Jessica Shambora started with Fortune as a reporter in June of 2008, following a stint as assistant editor at Travel+Leisure Golf. Shambora has written for Sports Illustrated, SI Latino, Women's Health, and Triathlete. She is a frequent contributor to Postcards. 
Ebay stock consistantly drops again today to another new low down another $1.39 per share to $16.50 closing only 1 penny up from it’s lowest point of the session at $16.49 per share which is way down from $40.73 per share less than 12 months ago.
way to go J.J. Donahoe
“Recessions are supposed to be boom times for yard sales and flea markets, so what’s eating eBay (EBAY), the world’s largest bargain bazaar?” Quoted in TECHLAND article By Scott Moritz October 2, 2008, 1:14 pm