SAN JOSE, Calif. — Meg Whitman soon will step down as chief executive of eBay, the online auction company that went from wobbly startup to multibillion-dollar household name in her 10-year tenure.
Whitman, 51, confirmed her March 31 departure as eBay reported a 53 percent gain in fourth-quarter profits. She is handing the job to John Donahoe, 47, head of eBay’s auction and e-commerce businesses, and will remain on eBay’s board of directors.
“With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives,” said Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder and chairman.
EBay’s earnings report beat Wall Street’s expectations, though its future guidance was tepid. The company said that in the last three months of 2007, it earned $530.9 million, or 39 cents per share. In the same period a year earlier, eBay earned $346.5 million, or 25 cents per share. Revenue in the quarter rose 27 percent to $2.18 billion.
The Associated Press
