Im not a republican or even a Whitman fan. But that article was so much hyperbole I could not read beyond page 2. eBay revenue in 2000 was $431.4 million; revenue in 2007 when Whitman left was $7.672 billion.
Yeah, there's no question that buying Skype was a terrible move and not just in hindsight (lots of people at the time were saying that it didn't make sense). But if you compare eBay to Amazon (which the author tries to do), the eBay share price dramatically outperformed Amazon during her tenure and just as dramatically underperformed after she left (but to be fair, the recent performance was also due to the fallout from Skype and to her failure to evolve the eBay business model)
It's as if there's a concerted effort to post these hit pieces against Whitman on HN. Yesterday it was how she destroyed HP's culture, today it's 'failing her way to the top at eBay'. What's on for tomorrow? Raping puppies? Grinding up newborns to make baby oil? Drinking the blood of young girls so she can maintain her youth?
4 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 19.5 ms ] threadSeems to me like she did a great job at ebay.