California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, eBay Inc.’s former chief executive, is scheduled to be the first witness to testify next week in the trial of the company’s lawsuit against Craigslist Inc.
Whitman, who resigned as CEO in 2008, will be followed on the witness stand in the Delaware Chancery Court trial by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, said Alan Marks, a spokesman for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay. The company runs the world’s most-visited e-commerce site.
EBay wants Judge William Chandler to find that Craigslist owners Craig Newmark and James Buckmaster diluted eBay’s minority stake by changing its stock structure. Craigslist officials said the changes were designed to beef up the closely held company’s anti-takeover defenses.
The trial in Georgetown, Del., is expected to last a week. EBay contends Newmark and Buckmaster approved corporate governance changes that reduced eBay’s stake in Craigslist to less than 25 percent, eliminating its right to elect a board member.
