Little-read blogger Bernard Lunn writes 978 words exploring the ramifications of Etsy, a website which sells handmade goods and recently raised $27 million. It's a deep, dense piece, contemplating Etsy as part of a "much broader economic shift" that heralds "the rise of mass customization." But it doesn't answer the question posed in the headline: Is Etsy the next eBay? Let us explore this lofty concept:
eBay's PayPal division will start holding payments for up to three weeks for certain "high-risk transactions" next month. Some sellers are pissed, but it's totally legal. PayPal is not a bank. It is not insured by the FDIC — the government program which insures deposits should a bank go under. PayPal is a "deposit broker," meaning the company pools deposits from all its users and holds them in bank accounts under PayPal's name, collecting interest on the money — and deposit brokers are not federally regulated.
Sellers angry with new eBay CEO John Donahoe's policies have driven listings down 13 percent since February 18, according to measures taken by researchers. The boycotting sellers are angry about Donahoe's plans to charge them more after each item is sold and highlight listings for merchants with the highest customer-service ratings, while removing sellers' ability to rate buyers. eBay exec Jim Griffith told USA Today internal statistics show the boycott "has had no impact on our listings." Don't expect it to impact eBay policy, either. The new rules are meant to keep lucrative top merchants happy. And since eBay cut listing fees at the same time that it raised sales fees, any effect on the bottom line will be muted.
Kuwaiti Gmail user Abdulaziz Al-Shalabi inadvertently gained access to 30 other accounts over the weekend. Courteously, Al-Shalabi quit poking around others' inboxes after he got bored looking at "keycodes for some embassy gate" and usernames and passwords, he told News.com. Google flack Jason Freidenfelds blamed a local ISP for the security glitch. eBay accounts were exposed, too, but company flack Nichola Sharpe wants you to know: "It wasn't a major problem .. .not anything on a large scale." But you might want to doublecheck before shipping your Beanie Baby collection to the Middle East, just in case. (Photo by the illustrious untitled13)
Some eBay sellers decided to protest the site's rule changes, which include ending negative reviews (which didn't matter in the ratings-inflated eBay world where everyone stamps "A+++++ WOULD BUY AGAIN" on every transaction) and discounting fees for power users. Does it mean eBay will reconsider? Well, recently I wrote about how Digg saved itself after some users threatened to boycott the social news site. What I failed to mention was that Digg was never in any danger. This revolt, like nearly every "revolt" in a major web site in the last five years, had no effect on the user base at large; the small cohort of disgruntled users would have made a stink for a week and given up. The same thing happens on Facebook every week, and founder Mark Zuckerberg pretends to listen but never really changes policy. Unlike those sites, on eBay, the strikers really are betting their livelihoods. So do they have a chance?
eBay plans to reduce the price sellers have to pay to list items and charge them more after each item is sold, new CEO John Donahoe told the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The auction site also plans to discount fees and highlight listings for merchants with the highest customer-service ratings. eBay sellers are angry about both changes. How angry? AuctionBytes told its readers to call in and leave messages expressing their wrath. Here's a clip with the best minute and half of the full nine minutes of ranting. (Photo by Piez)
New eBay CEO John Donahoe made his first move today: eBay will reduce the price sellers have to pay to list items for sale on the site and charge them more after each item is sold. Additionally, the auction site will discount fees and highlight listings for merchants with the highest customer-service ratings. [WSJ]
Asked whether eBay would sell PayPal or Skype, new eBay CEO John Donahoe denied any chance of a PayPal sale but said the company planned to "test the synergies" resulting from the Skype integration. The questioner, Fortune's Adam Lashinsky, later told SAI that Donahoe's answer meant he would give Skype a year "to show synergies with eBay" before selling it. Odds are it'll happen. In October, eBay took a $1.4 billion asset-impairment charge on the company it purchased for $2.5 billion in 2005.
eBay's new CEO, John Donahoe, got a hefty payoff just for taking the job. Docu-Drama reports that his total take comes to $25 million, including a $15 million "promotion bonus" in the form of options and restricted stock. Then there's outgoing CEO Meg Whitman, who made a half-billion dollars in stock sales over her tenure, including $100 million in the past 5 months. Whitman gets free office space and secretarial services, and as a special advisor, she stays on the payroll — which means her options will continue to vest. Handy, considering so many of them are underwater.
Could retiring eBay CEO Meg Whitman run to be the next governor of California, as the Los Angeles Times speculated recently? Absolutely not, she told managers at the San Jose-based auction giant recently. But as that rumor was quashed, another one arose: That she's angling to be a Cabinet secretary in a future Mitt Romney presidency. Romney's campaign is still seen as a longshot. But the two share close ties. Whitman is Romney's finance cochair. And they both belong to a shadowy, secretive cult with vast, poorly understood powers — that is to say, they're both former management consultants.
The Los Angeles Times reports that "Whitman has talked with top Republicans about the possibility of a run for California governor in 2010, according to three operatives who have had discussions with her. Whitman is said to be asking detailed questions about the logistics of a run and the effect she could have as governor." The eBay/PayPal punchlines here are so obvious, we'll leave them to you.
Whitman's out and the new guy in charge, John Donahoe, says step one to fixing eBay is fixing its internal search engine. "Our buyers tell us that we know you have unmatched selection, but we can't always find what we want," Donahoe told Bits. Unable to find what they want to buy using eBay's search, Donahoe's theory goes, these users go to Google instead. What Donahoe doesn't mention: eBay has been talking about improving its search for years.
eBay employees have just received an email from longtime CEO Meg Whitman announcing her retirement. She joined the company 10 years ago, when it had a mere 30 employees; it now has 14,000. John Donahoe, as expected, will succeed her as CEO. Rajiv Dutta, currently CEO of PayPal, will take Donahoe's job as head of eBay's auctions business. Whitman will remain on the board. Strange, that: In an email to employees, Whitman says it's "time for a new leadership team," and yet all the same faces are staying in place. Here's her full memo to employees.
eBay CEO Meg Whitman could announce plans to retire as soon as today's earnings call. The most likely candidate to replace her? Consensus suggests auctions chief John Donahoe. But how'd that happen? A quick look at other viable contenders shows Donahoe's candidacy owes much to the process of elimination. Here's how the discarded contenders stack up.
On Friday, Citigroup's Mark Mahaney judged tech stocks on four criteria: International exposure, countercyclical hedges, least risk to 2008 Wall Street estimates and intrinsic valuation. Which means what? Dunno. Go to Seeking Alpha for that. But to find out if your company's on the OK or Not-So-OK list in light of this morning's Fed rate cut and stock-market dive, check out this list.
At last, eBay CEO Meg Whitman is preparing to leave, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's about time, and even Whitman would agree, having said that no one should stay CEO of a company for more than 10 years. That deadline comes in March, and Tuesday's earnings call are as good a time to tell shareholders as any. Her likely replacement, John Donahoe, won't be much of a change: If he is tapped as CEO, power will be ceremoniously transferred one ex-management consultant to another. Is it any wonder eBay is bleeding risktakers and creative talent?
For the first holiday season ever, more Americans visited Amazon.com than eBay last December, the New York Times reports, citing numbers from Nielsen. eBay still trumped Amazon in time spent, or "engagement," and total pageviews — all of that auction-watching, you know. And it's important to remember that traffic without transactions doesn't do either site any good. But the news can't be a comfort the eBay CEO Meg Whitman, here pictured with Mitt Romney (far left) and some guy.
"The Wall St. buzz is that msft and yhoo are bidding for eBay. My source tells me that Yahoo! has bid 1.76 shares for eBay ($40-41) and is expected to win at that price." So writes Scot Wingo, the plugged-in CEO of ChannelAdvisor, an auctions-software maker in which eBay owns a minority stake. Let's dissect that rumor, shall we?
