McCain Touts Former Ebay CEO As Company Makes Drastic Cuts

McCain touts the economic prowess of, and suggests as a future Treasury Secretary Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay and someone who he has turned to for economic advice in the past. Normally, this is a solid point for McCain to press, highlighting entrepreneurship and the growth of female business leaders. The problem: eBay just announced that it was firing 10 percent of its work force.

Comments

[ebay]

It is interesting how the 1500 employee lay off received so much attention, however, over 10% of total powersellers were laid off/suspended because of flawed aggressive policy poorly implemented has not had a placement. This is proved by http://blog.sellerdome.com/?p=16 between 15k-30K e bay powersellers who account for $3000-$20,000 in seller fees paid each month for each of those sellers. This seems a larger story than a simple layoff of e bay employees. Ebay saves money by laying off paid employees, but e bays profit takes a hit by getting rid of partners who contribute to e bay profit. For example: 20,000 powerselle­rs/partner­s laid off/suspended that account for an average of $5,000 per month seller fees = $100,000,000 each month in seller fees not received by e bay. That is $1,200,000,000 per year in revenue given up for aggressively flawed policy by current management. The idea current ebay management had was by getting rid of 10% of its selling partners was going drive back 32% of its buyers, however, that has clearly not been the case.

[Anciano]

Paraphrasing McCain: 'I like Meg Whitman, she took a business that had 16 employees and built it into one that employs1.3 million people selling on eBay..." Yeah John, and 1.2 Million of them are doing it out of desperation, selling Grandma's heirlooms so that they can afford to buy gas for their care to take them to their lousy no-benefits race to the bottom job brought to them by the Party That Wrecked America.

[ARTIST50]

If McCain knew how to use "the Google" he would have known they had just laid off all those workers!

[loax]

I agree with whsmith. I once was a rabid user of ebay. They are going down the toilet as fast as mcCains campaign. Meg whitman did them no favors when she was CEO!

[whsmith]

ebay has fallen apart under Meg Whitman - ebay is abusive and neglectful towards both buyers and sellers - but it's constantly raising fees while the user experience spirals downwards. ebay is the worst example of a greedy, shoddily run company to survive the first web boom - how much longer it survives is in question. great example of executive experience to have on your ticket McCain.

[jsarets]

Yeah, I was at an Obama debate party in SF and picked up on this connection as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Ooh, eBay just laid off 1600 people... maybe not the best time to propose their recently-former CEO as the head of a Treasury that has become vastly more complex than ever.

Then again, Obama did sidestep the question by only floating Warren Buffett (unlikely at his age). I mean, it's going to be Bob Rubin, right? But he doesn't dare say so on national TV.

[CNBCSucks]

Given the cavalier way with which Republicans have considered fiscal responsibility, Meg Whitman makes perfect sense as Treasurer. Who else to manage the buying and selling of toxic securities than the woman who revolutionized the buying and selling of crap we want to get rid of.

[CNBCSucks]

I should add that it was clear McCain has promised the job to Gramm, but Brokaw did not press the issue enough.

http://cnbcsucks.wordpress.com

[dansup]

who preps this guy? Today of all days wasn't the day to drop her name, after announcing 10000 layoffs!

get a clue and retire already

[Mikeylikesit2]

I think if you talk to any long time ebay seller they have nothing but distain for Meg as she ruined that company through here direct mis-management, poor customer service, sluggish adaption to change and excessive service fees that lessened the profits of all ebay sellers.

to top it off, she took here own "golden parachute" in a massive personal stock sell-off just before their value was tanked.

If other have personal experience with ebay, good or bad please chime in

For me McCant and Meg make a perfect storm of finincial ruins

[ahsaki80]

First, moose-killin' Palin, now this. I'd hate to see who makes up the McCain administration. I swear either this man has the worst judgement or he has Alzheimer's disease.

[AnneElk]

Oh darnit!... I was soooo hoping he'd name "Tom" from MySpace for Treasury Secretary.

I mean Tom's like friends with ya know, like EVERYBODY... And not only that, he knows how to... well, network, and such like things like that, that are important, of course, to well, you know... cause once you have that connection, you see, it's important to add up all the positives in regards to connectivity.... And further more, Tom is like in a different time zone, so if there's a crisis here... in Eastern time, then that gives Tom like an extra 3 hours to come up with a good ole fixaroonie...

now....What Would Joe Sixpack Do?

[johnnyzhivago]

Say it ain't so - why has McCain foresaken uber-CEO Carly Fiorina???

[ThoughtCrimeWave]

CEO of the World's Largest Pawn Shop for Sec. of Treasury?

That sounds like bleak future.

[macohmz]

Where is it written that a damned CEO has to be in charge of a government agency?

[Patricia013]

Good grief - just what someone who is trailing in the polls should do...shoot themselves in the foot! Meg Whitman???? At first I thought well - at least California would be safe from her running for governor - then I realized that Secretary of the Treasury is an even bigger job to screw up like she helped screw up Ebay. She will never be forgotten as the person who groomed John Donahoe and that Donahoe has almost single handedly brought the company to its knees in less than a year with his foolish "disruptive innovation" garbage!! He and Whitman have put thousands of small sellers out of business and they will both be known for that...forever! Among small sellers, ebay is no prize package - no salvation from poverty - instead it has become the most hated company on the internet with no end in sight! If McCain kept up on current events and bothered to look into what Whitman left on Ebay he would not have her anywhere near him let alone suggest her for Secretaryof the Treasury!!

Well, one thing it did was to convince me that McCain is totally out of touch and following right in Bushes' footsteps with handing out jobs to people who support his campaign..­..regardle­ss of experience for the job! One has to wonder...what next?