All Things Digital

Going, Going, Gone …

eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman is indeed retiring, and John Donahoe, president of eBay’s auction business unit, will succeed her.

Previously: eBay CEO High Bidder in Auction for Romney Presidential Cabinet Spot?

Q: You said in the past that a CEO should probably serve 10 years. You’ve served eight. What are your plans? Will you follow your own advice?

A: The first piece of advice I wish someone had given me as a freshman CEO is to keep your mouth shut. Somehow I didn’t get that advice, which is don’t talk about when you’re coming or when you’re going because it just creates a set of questions that probably aren’t productive.

–eBay CEO Meg Whitman, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 19, 2006

Looks like eBay CEO Meg Whitman may make good after all on her pledge that no CEO should stay more than a decade. Whitman, the public face of eBay for the past 10 years, is reportedly preparing to retire. She has been delegating more tasks to deputies over the last few months and is expected to decide on her retirement in the coming weeks, The Wall Street Journal reports, quoting “people familiar with the matter.”

John Donahoe, who joined eBay in 2005 to lead its auction business unit, is the leading candidate to succeed her.

Rumors of Whitman’s imminent departure come at a critical time for eBay. The company is due to report earnings for the fourth quarter tomorrow. And though this quarter includes the traditionally strong year-end holiday period, it will likely be marred by a general slowing in eBay’s core auction business and the company’s continued struggles with Skype, the Internet telephony outfit for which it recently took a $1.4 billion write-down.

So perhaps it’s a perfect time for Whitman to step aside. Certainly she leaves a storied career behind her. She led the company through its 1998 initial public offering, and from there through some 40 quarters of sequential revenue growth. An impressive achievement by any measure–Skype acquisition be damned. Now, maybe it’s time to move on to bigger things.

Much bigger. Like perhaps a position in the cabinet of friend and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (shown below, left, with Whitman and VC Steve Jurvetson)? Whitman can’t be suffering through those Romney fund-raising telethons for nothing, right?

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, not Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, is the most influential IT personality of the past quarter-century.

This according to a survey of IT professionals conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association. Asked to list the most influential tech personalities of the last 25 years, 84% of respondents listed Gates, and 73% listed Jobs. Also appearing on the list: Dell CEO Michael Dell (53% of respondents); Linux founder Linus Torvalds (47%); Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (also 47%); Cisco CEO John Chambers (44%); Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (36%); Vint “Father of the Internet” Cerf (35%); Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (also 35%); and eBay CEO Meg Whitman (30%).

What an inopportune time for a conference appearance. As eBay CEO Meg Whitman takes the Web 2.0 Summit stage, eBay shares are trading down more than 6% amid concerns that the company’s core online auction business is slowing. Though eBay posted earnings yesterday that exceeded Wall Street expectations, its auction listings fell year over year for the second consecutive quarter and it suffered its first sequential dip in active eBay.com users ever.

Huh. We’re already 10 minutes into the conversation and Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, hasn’t even mentioned yesterday’s earnings. We have learned, however, that Whitman actually uses eBay and once sold her Mickey Mouse skis on it.

Is there a social-networking play in PayPal? O’Reilly asks.

Whitman responds that the “question is, over time, could PayPal become not only your wallet, but your reputation and your identity as you move around the Web? And I think that’s possible. There’s a huge opportunity here, but you have to be careful because you’re dealing with identity, financial identity, presence and reputation.”

Wow. Turns out eBay has a law-enforcement division that apparently includes some former FBI people. That said, eBay believes people are basically good, but that doesn’t mean EVERYONE is basically good. “We’ve developed expertise to help fight bad buys on the Web,” Whitman says, adding that eBay has some 2,000 people who do fraud modeling, etc., to keep eBay free of “bad actors on the Net.”

Then, onto other areas of the company: Are you still bullish on Skype? O’Reilly asks.

“Sure we’re stull bullish,” Whitman parries. “We’re a bit dissapointed, but bullish. We’re better positioned after the earnout to delight customers. We don’t have to worry as much about revenues and operating margins at this juncture. Skype still has great potential, and Skype 4.0 is on the way.”

O’Reilly: You’re looking for a new CEO?

Whitman: Yes, we are looking for a new CEO. There has been tremendous interest.

(I wonder if she’s got Jeff Citron’s CV sitting on her desk.)