After a decade in the driver seat of online auction giant eBay, beleaguered CEO Meg Whitman is thinking about retirement amid the company’s sluggish growth.

According to WSJ, people familiar with the situation said she has been delegating her tasks to subordinates for the last few months and will be announcing her final decision in a few weeks. John Donahue, the president of eBay’s Marketplaces or the auction unit, is the leading candidate to replace Whitman, if the rumors are true.

Retirement or resignation usually happens when you fail to impress the all-profit stockholders. Although she is credited for making eBay a global success, her recent leadership was questioned for the current slowdown and the controversial $1.4 billion write-down for not generating enough ROI on the popular VoIP company, Skype.

Maybe Whitman is right when she said no chief executive must stay in power for more than a decade. Perhaps it’s time to give other guys the reins in this global online business.

Originally posted on January 22, 2008 @ 11:59 am

At approximately 12:30 p.m. (PST) today, local law enforcement authorities of San Jose, California determined that a suspicious package delivered to eBay’s mailroom on the Hamilton Avenue campus was harmless.

Beginning at approximately 8:55 a.m. today, more than 200 employees had been evacuated from their building. The affected areas of campus have since been reopened. eBay, PayPal and Skype services remain unaffected.

Originally posted on November 14, 2007 @ 6:32 pm

As part of its “philosophical shift” to improve its sluggish performance, online auction giant eBay plans to launch its own social networking service called “Neighborhoods”.

In eBay’s words, “Neighborhoods are places for people like you who want to connect via their shared passions for products and topics. You can jump right in, or just come by and watch – it’s up to you.” It brings together all the important features of eBay such as guides, reviews, eBay blogs, photos, and comments between sellers and buyers.

This centralized approach will make it easier for buyers to find products related to their interests. Currently, there are about 600 neighborhoods in eBay including coffee lovers, Apple iPhones, jewelries, Star Wars, and foodies.

Apparently, it is very easy to get lost in this site given its more than 560 million products in the inventory. Neighborhoods is a new customer-friendly service geared towards bringing back its folksy appeal and building a sense of community.

Originally posted on October 9, 2007 @ 11:39 pm

eBay Inc. announced its acquisition of ViA-Online GmbH, anauction management software company in Germany that operates Afterbuy.com to enable professional trading on eBay.de and other online marketplaces. The acquisition enables eBay to expand service and support for its German sellers, while allowing Afterbuy to grow its business with the e-commerce expertise and resources of eBay. Afterbuy will continue to operate under its current brand name and will remain in Krefeld, Germany.

Afterbuy is an all-in-one online sales tool and covers all processes of the selling workflow: goods and inventory management, item listing, cross-selling and transaction and pre-sale management. Afterbuy can be connected to external services and business processes such as accounting software or shipping solutions of logistic services. Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Originally posted on October 4, 2007 @ 8:22 am