By Daniella Alpher

I’ve dedicated much of the past nine months to observing business activity in secondary markets, past and present. I now find myself absolutely fascinated by the eBay vs. Craigslist trial which started last week. EBay acquired 28% of Craigslist in 2004 but claims that in 2007 Craigslist improperly diluted eBay’s interest to 24% – essentially throwing out eBay’s member from Craigslist’s board, as that required a minimum stake of 25%. Craigslist in tern counter-sued claiming eBay used its investment in Craigslist to help Kijiji.

Numerous interesting interactions are playing out in court as a result of these disagreements because the leaders of these two companies are publicly testifying. These are all people I have been admiring from afar: I read books about them, articles about them, their blogs, their Tweets, watch video clips… anything I can get a hold of to learn about their work. So it’s terribly disconcerting to see them all fighting amongst themselves. I look at Meg Whitman, Pierre Omidyar, Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster all taking the stand but what I see is Wonder Woman, Superman, Spiderman and Captain America. I imagined them as being the good guys, together defending that beautiful flea market in the sky… They’re my heroes, they’re not supposed to be arguing with each other.

Anyway. In terms of interesting specifics, as far as I can tell following from my laptop in Tel Aviv (while emitting personal attacks aimed at Wonder Woman):

• Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster revealed last week that Yahoo, Salon, Bertelsmann, Google, Warburg Pincus and Kleiner Perkins all spoke to him back in 2004 either about acquiring a share of Craigslist, or all of it.
• After attending just his first two Craigslist board meetings, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar asked to be replaced. Omidyar testified that he was disappointed to see Craigslist’s management wasn’t looking for ways the two companies can work together. Which probably says it all.

Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, posted this on Craigslist’s official blog before the trial started and his blog post contains a useful link to Craigslist’s pre-trial brief. The only noteworthy Tweet I can find from one of my superheros is Pierre Omidyar’s, who posted this complaint the night before he testified: “One of the things I am most annoyed by is finding out in the evening that I have to wake up earlier than I thought the next day.” Turns out Superman’s not a morning person.

Executives from eBay and Craigslist testified in a Delaware court over the course of the week over the auction giant’s stake in the classifieds leader. If you didn’t fork over $400 to watch today’s live stream of the culture clash between the folksy Craigslist and pragmatic eBay, I’ve pieced together what you missed:

• According to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, Google had tried to buy early Craigslist employee Phillip Knowlton’s shares, but Craigslist became more interested in eBay because it would be satisfied with a minority stake, whereas Google wanted to buy the whole company. Buckmaster said he also discussed selling the shares to Yahoo, Salon.com, the venture arm of Bertlesmann, Warburg Pincus and Kleiner Perkins. (AuctionBytes)
• Craig Newmark testified that then-eBay CEO Meg Whitman assured him that eBay would not use the confidential information about Craigslist it had access to as a shareholder to compete with the site, however the contract the two companies signed in August 2004 for 28 percent of the company at a price of $32 million did allow eBay to compete, with the exception that it would lose shareholder rights if it offered online jobs postings in the U.S.
  (The Associated Press)
• In fact, eBay was at the time pursuing a classifieds business in 10 countries in Europe that fall and acquired a classifieds company, but current California gubernatorial candidate Whitman admitted she did not tell Buckmaster and Newmark of those plans. eBay said Craigslist’s board meetings were “amateurish,” while Newmark said eBay chose to be the goliath in the situation. (court video clip)
• Both Buckmaster and Newmark charged that Whitman was “not trustworthy.” When Buckmaster complained to Whitman after eBay launched competing classifieds site Kijiji, she replied that eBay did not want to part with its shares, and would in fact like to take over the whole company if possible. Buckmaster, who will continue testifying on Monday, described this as “a slamming of the door in the face.” (The AM Law Litigation Daily)
• Emails shown in court revealed that eBay anticipated that it would lose its board seat as a result of violating shareholder agreements by launching Kijiji. (The Register)

Testimony continues next week, and Craigslist has filed a countersuit alleging that eBay stole confidential information for the Kijiji launch — though Newmark admitted at the Delaware trial that he has never seen Kijiji.

The TTC in bed with Ashley Madison? Heavens to murgatroyd! No one ever says that anymore. It’s a shame, really. Snagglepuss must be rolling over in his grave. But I digress.

The TTC has been linked to Ashley Madison, a website whose official slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.”  Specifically, Ashley Madison is crying foul over the TTC’s rejection of a contract that would have wrapped several streetcars in Ashley Madison advertising. Even more specifically, the streetcars would have the company’s slogan plastered along either side. It’s a deal that would put at least $250,000 in the TTC’s pockets, which are presently empty and hanging inside-out with moths flying about. Talk radio (the social barometer by which all issues are measured… what are you going to do about it, social media?) was all a-twitter this morning (see what I did there?) over the issue, with Torontonians evenly divided on whether it’s a good idea. Here are some arguments floating around:

• Having Ashley Madison advertise on the TTC will encourage deviant behaviour and drive people to cheat on their significant others – First off, if someone in a relationship is debating cheating, that relationship is already in trouble. Second, if someone in a relationship decides to go ahead and cheat, they will do so regardless of what they see on the side of a bus. Life isn’t a movie where epiphanies are had standing on snowy street corners staring at signs on streetcars.There seems to be little uproar over the EYE or NOW magazines available free at most TTC stations, which openly advertise sexual services from prostitutes and escorts, and feature NSA (no-strings attached) ads from ordinary people looking for casual sex. In fact, there is likely a greater probability that you’re safer meeting someone from Ashley Madison for casual yet intimate encounters, rather than from the back pages of a free newspaper.
• How will parents explain to children viewing the ad the notion of having an affair? – Good parents will think of something. If not, maybe we should look at banning the word “sex” from advertising, though that would probably cut out 50% of all ads. Maybe we should also make sure women in ads all wear ankle-length skirts and cover their shoulders, in case children ask about breasts or shapely legs. Oh, we should also ban ads where it looks like people are driving fast, in case it leads to speed racing. We should also ban the movie Speed Racer. Speaking of movies, don’t they have words in their titles like kill and death and violence and war? Let’s look at banning those as well. I’m pretty sure I once saw an ad that asked people not to smoke, and that may have a reverse-psychology effect on children, so that’s banned as well.The annoying point I’m making here is that you cannot shield your children from everything, and more importantly, your children aren’t as interested in these things as parents believe. They don’t possess the breadth of experience and knowledge to properly process the meaning of and beliefs behind, say, an affair. They learn the surface meaning and move on.
• If Ashley Madison can advertise, why not cigarette companies? Alcohol? Gaming? – What if Marlboro put up a website, and asked people to join and create profiles. They could interact online with other people interested in Marlboros, and maybe even meet up in person. And when they met in person, they would each bring some cigarettes and smoke up a storm together. It’s a lousy – and copyrighted – idea, but bear with me. Marlboro wouldn’t be pushing cigarettes in that case. Sure, they may be encouraging their use, but they would really just be acting as a facilitator between two parties with mutual interests. If they hadn’t met through Marlboro’s website, they might have met nine feet outside the front doors to their office.If someone is going to cheat, they will cheat. Seeing an ad won’t compel anyone who hasn’t already made that decision. What’s more, Ashley Madison only acts as a third party. If not them, then EYE or NOW or Craigslist or Kijiji or any other number of sources.

By now you should see where I stand on the issue. The TTC is in need of money and Ashley Madison is more than happy to fork some over. But ethics and morals prevent the TTC from accepting. Has it forgotten the fact that in 2007, it was happy to take on the controversy of posting ads promoting atheism and the lack of God? Two years can be a long time when you’re raising fares and failing to meet the evolving infrastructure of the city which you serve.

Even if the TTC ultimately does reject having Ashley Madison’s ads plastered on what probably amounts to less than 1% of their streetcar fleet (for $250,000, did I mention that?), this should open a discussion for more advertising on the TTC to subsidize some of its costs.

Anyone who’s been on the Metro in Paris, the Underground in London, the New York subway, the Hong Kong subway and many other transit systems can attest to a plethora of ads. In New York and Paris, there is an ad every few feet. They are inescapable but not intolerable; rather they are a part of the urban underground landscape. Blending into the walls of the transit system as passers-by scurry by, they also give companies a chance to be edgy, creative and try to grab people’s attention. Volkswagen is a perfect example.

Finally, in a brilliant PR move, Ashley Madison has also announced it will have reduced fares on TTC vehicles bearing their ad, should their contract be approved. I don’t know if that’s realistic, but they’ve managed to hit a note that resonates with every citizen of Toronto, regardless of their stance on the morality of the issue: Your wallets are suffering, and we want to help. In effect, they’ve told Toronto that they will subsidize the TTC and they will subsidize TTC riders, but the TTC won’t let them. Touché, Ashley Madison.

Bottom line: The TTC needs financial help. If they don’t accept it from Ashley Madison, let this issue lead to an improved resolution on advertising on the TTC in order to offset operating costs. Higher ad revenues mean lower fares and a better system. Toronto deserves that much.

What do you think? Would you allow this? Details, please…

by The New York Times, December 8, 2009.

Meg Whitman is a good witness.

I watched her testimony on Monday (courtesy of Courtroom View Network) in the trial between eBay and Craigslist and was impressed with her calm, cool demeanor. Craigslist and its two controlling stockholders — Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster — are being sued by eBay over the the two men’s attempt to strip eBay of governance rights in Craigslist. This trial is the culmination of that effort. Ms. Whitman, eBay’s former chief executive, was the first witness.

The dispute itself is the opening scene in my new book, “Gods at War: Shotgun Takeovers, Government by Deal and the Private Equity Implosion.” I use this story to show how personalities can drive and shape deals and how deal makers can still push the edges of the law in their disputes…(continue reading)

I havebeen searching for job that would allow me to stay home with my children. What I found was scams everywhere. People trying to sell you things to make money. I applied for few that would allow me stay home, but they turn out to be scams. I received a part time job opportunity. The guy told me he was working for a recruitment company. They needed people to post jobs on craigslist and kijiji. I posted jobs that he told me to post. After about a week the guy just disappeared and he did not pay me for the work I did. It is sad he wasted my time. I am sure there many people out there that he scammed to. If have any comment or same thing happen to you let me know.

The truth is, I’d been meaning to get a new yoga mat for while. I’ve had my Wai Lana blue foral print guy since I was 14, and although it has never failed me (Ever), whenever I would walk into Chapters and browse their little yoga section, I couldn’t help but long after those newer Gaiam yoga mat models.

By chance, I was on kijiji last night, looking for a discounted yoga mat, when I stumbled across an ad that called for a used yoga mat. Bingo, I thought. But it was only when I received a reply back from the girl that it dawned on me: I’m not ready to sell my first-ever yoga mat. At first, there was panic, and then I thought ha! I’ll send her photos of my mat showcasing the used parts – that’ll deter her for sure! And I’ll hold the price firm so that no negotiations may be made!

However, it was to no avail. True, the money I made was excellent – I paid $20 for this mat at Winners – and after 5 and a half years of use, I got $15 back, which is not a shabby payback at all, considering yoga mats are things that people sweat on and shed numerous hair follices and skin cells on…*shudder*. Nonetheless, it was indeed a bittersweet farewell – excited to be on a new-yoga-mat hunt, but at the same time, feeling a somewhat inexplicable pang of guilt. Why should I feel guilty though? What’s wrong with me?

Anyways. The feeling of sacrilege was actually looming so large over me (I actually felt like I had just sold my first-born) that I began to wonder if there was some kind of unspoken rule about this in the yogini world. When I came home from the meet-up place where I met with the buyer, I proceeded to google this. Again, fruitless. I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe I should feel good about this – after all, recycling and re-using yoga mats is the better thing to do. Right?

There are plenty of homes for sale on the internet, foreclosures are everywhere! That means you have to be in the main stream with the competition.

Put your homes everywhere! Also include your contact information in the listing to make sure your email and phone is getting the attention you need!

Here are 40 resources to help you move that deal quickly.

Copy and Paste into your address bar and check out each one.

craigslist.org
zillow.com
trulia.com
kijiji.com
backpage.com
base.google.com
ebay.com (classified Real Esate Ads)
realestate.aol.com
homesbylender.com
allthelistings.com

hometoursonline.net
mlshub.com
actualhomes.com
shopdreamhouse.com
www.neorealestate.com
fsbogorilla.com
forsaleownerhomes.com
homes85.com
realestateshows.com
allstatesfsbo.com

byowners365.net
homesforsalebyowner.com
sellhomeshere.com
helpussell.com
fsbodepoe.com
buyowner.com
realestate
propertysites.com
fsbocom.foreclosure.com
forsalebyowner.com

fsbo.com
homesbyowner.com
virtualfsbo.com
usapropertyadvertiser.com
fromhomeowner.com
ownerswillcarry.com
fsbozone.com
talkingproperties.com
salesbyownerrealty.com
mhbo.com

realtymadeeasy.com
usatoday.com
postyourpad.com
www.findgreatrealty.com
homeseekerz.ccom
thehomelist.com
homeportfoliojunction.com
usfreeads.com
properazzi.com
propsmart.com

To Your Success,

Hunter

407-772-2274

http://www.3dayslive.com

There are many website which you can buy Items off users.
-Theirs the Famous Ebay.ca which is used to bid on Items.
Or
Theirs sites Like Kijiji.ca and Craigslist.ca which are site were you can post ads for Free and have people come pickup the items.
Which Site is best for you?
–Well that all depends on which site you prefer.
I like Kijiji’s Layout the best and find myself posting ads more on it and surfing it for used items I want. But both work well and have different used items so I tend to use both to find whatever I’m looking for.
–Ebay on the other hand does seem to have more Items that I look for then both kijiji’s and craigslist but ebays prices to me seem to be more and are usually shipping only.
When looking for certain Items there are usually forums which usually have a Buy & Sell section.
–If I were looking for a good Bicycle the first place would be pinkbike.com which has a Buy & Sell Area, places like this have users which know more about the item they are selling and prices are usually pretty good because everyone know a lot about bicycles which means the price’s seem to stay fair or else the item wont sell. But that doesn’t mean you get the couple of people who over price now and again.
–Talking about specific Buy & sell Places like the one above I have to say these places seem the best and should be used to your advantage when buying used but sometime There is no specific forum for the item you are looking for: your best bet then would to try kijiji & Craigslist but then again these places might not even have it, then you have your last resort Ebay which is usually the one with the most but the most expensive so its all up to you as to how much you want to spend and how much time you feel like looking for a Item. If you know any good Buy & Sell sites or Forums let me know so I can gather a list to post later on Thanks.

I have a small apartment, it’s simple, something I’m sure every other nineteen year old single girl has as their first apartment in the big city. There’s no elevator in our building, so I lug my groceries up three flights of stairs only to enter a overheated apartment.

Yesterday I placed a kijiji ad to find a room-mate.

Female room mate wanted, small apartment, $600 monthly plus utilities. No dogs.

I dunno. Normally I would get my parents help on something like this, but I wanted to try doing stuff like this on my own. We’ll see what happens…

I decided I’m not going to call Mr. Hotty. I’d like to see if he calls me first. It’s been a couple of days and I haven’t heard anything yet. Well, yesterday the phone rang but no one was on the other end. I would love to think that it’s him calling and working up the nerve to talk to me, but that seems far fetched.

I’ll give him one more night and if he doesn’t call, I’ll move on. As much as a girl that’s expereiced the best night of her life moves on from it.

Welcome to the www.NegMeg.com NEG Meg Whitman news archive.

“a monkey could drive this train”
Margaret “Meg” Whitman comment on eBay,
while she was eBay CEO and President.

Margaret Cushing “Meg” Whitman
Born August 4 1956

• “President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from March 1998 to March 2008.”

NEG Meg The Series Episodes

NEG Meg The Series 1998

CEO Employment Letter between eBay and Meg Whitman
January 16 1998

• “eBay, Inc. (the “Company” or “eBay”) is pleased to offer you a position as Chief Executive Officer, at a salary, payable twice per month, which is equivalent to a yearly salary of $175,000.00. In addition, you will be eligible for an annual bonus up to $100,000.00 solely at the discretion of the Board of Directors.”
• “You will also be entitled to the benefits that ebay customarily makes available to employees in positions comparable to yours and it will be recommended to the Board of Directors that you be granted an option for the purchase of 800,000 shares of the Company’s Common Stock.”

Women on the Move
Deeanne McClain, August 24 1998

• “Meg Whitman has been named the new CEO of eBay, the rapidly growing online personal trading company. Whitman comes to eBay from Hasbro Inc.’s Preschool Division and is expected to lead eBay to the next level of success, building upon the company’s leadership position in the one-to-one online trading market.”

EBay Suspends Fraud Suspect
December 14 1998

• “suspended a user who is under investigation for cheating customers out of as much as US$100,000, according to a report in the latest issue of Newsweek.” “But the high-flying San Jose, California, company has refused to give refunds to the duped customers, Newsweek reported, suggesting that eBay (EBAY) may be unable to protect its customers from fraud. ”
• “”We feel badly for [the victims] but [they] really do need to take it up with local law enforcement,” eBay chief Meg Whitman”
• “The stock closed Friday at $192″

NEG Meg The Series 1999-2000

NEG Meg The Series 2001

NEG Meg The Series 2002

NEG Meg The Series 2003

NEG Meg The Series 2004

NEG Meg The Series 2005

NEG Meg The Series 2006

NEG Meg The Series 2007

NEG Meg The Series 2008

NEG Meg The Series 2009

Meg Whitman Steps Down from eBay’s Board
Randy Smythe, January 5 2009

• Comments

Meg Whitman to run for Governor of California
Power Sellers Unite, January 6 2009

Meg Whitman resigns from all board positions
Ed, January 6 2009

• “her recent history has shown that whilst she is a capable and dynamic leader during growth of a business, she flounders during stagnation or decline.”

The Shenzhenian Candidate: Meg Whitman Wants to be Governor of California
Chris Kelly, January 6 2009

• “She’s a real person. With a genuine record. Of callous indifference not just to the dignity of labor, but to suffering in general.”

Bain Connection – Corp Raiders & Salvador
wphamilton, January 8 2009

• “In 1984, Bain Capital was financed by Ricardo Poma, Salvadoran billionaire. The founding partners were Mitt Romney, T. Coleman Andrews III, and Eric Kriss. Bain Capital was a spinoff of Bain & Company, whose executives included Mitt Romney (CEO), Meg Whitman (8yrs, VP) and John Donahoe (17 yrs, Managing Director).”
• “The Bain Way, unavoidable in the business of corporate raiding, typically meant slashing jobs, closing plants, moving production overseas. The objective is bottom line return for investors regardless of jobs, local impact, environmental or other considerations, or in some cases even the long term health of the business.”
• “Bain & Company – the consulting firm parent company – saw its revenues plummet in the 80’s, the senior partners accused of looting the company for retirement featherbedding.”

Greed At A Glance
January 12 2009

• “Whitman does seem to have a problem relating to the world outside her rather privileged personal bubble. Even her philanthrophy reeks of regal.”

Don’t Bid on Meg Whitman
Mark Gimein, January 16 2009

• “The reality, however, is that the perception among CEOs that they shine in the public eye is one that comes mainly from the fact that many of them spend their time around subordinates who are eager to reflect their faint glow and pretend it’s a blinding light.”  ”Whitman is typical in this. The adoring press that Whitman got for years as head of eBay (adoring in part because eBay very efficiently shut down reporters who weren’t—for most of the time that I’d worked at Fortune, the company refused to take the magazine’s calls because of an insufficiently flattering story) contrasts starkly with the stiffness you see when you watch her at the Republican Convention—or even at eBay’s own annual eBay Live gathering.”
• “points up the biggest problem with Whitman as a candidate: After years of facing flattery and imagining that it is scrutiny, and reciting catchphrases that will seem appealing only to those who are getting paid to applaud, the average chief executive has developed the misconception that the best way to reach an audience is to say nothing.”
• “chief executives like Whitman are used to saying nothing, sounding like they’re saying nothing, and getting congratulated for it. That, more than any stiffness of style or inexperience in real public scrutiny is what keeps CEOs like Whitman out of elective office.”

eBay’s Meg Whitman to Announce Governor Run Today
Ina Steiner, February 9 2009

• Comments

It’s Official – Meg Runs for California Governor in 2010
Randy Smythe, February 9 2009

• Comments

Meg Whitman to run for Governor of California
Sue Bailey, February 9 2009

• Comments

Whitman settles cybersquatter case — out of court
Shane Goldmacher, February 9 2009

• Comments

Former eBay CEO Wants to be Next California Governor
Chris Crum, February 9 2009

• Comments

Meg Whitman: Small Business Governor?
Stacy Perman, February 9 2009

• Comments
• More Comments

Heavily Vaselined Ex-eBay CEO Running for California Governor
Owen Thomas, February 9 2009

• Comments

Look Out Arnold ~ Meg’s Coming!
Yahoo! Message Boards – eBay Inc. (EBAY), February 9 2009

If Meg Whitman runs California like eBay…
Dan Wilson, February 10 2009

• Comments

CA-Gov: Meg Whitman Is In
Arjun Jaikumar, February 10 2009

• “Ms. Whitman’s most recent claim to fame was presiding over a company which was part and parcel of those job losses, having laid off 10% of its workforce.”
• “Whitman may take some hits among conservatives for not even having been a Republican until 2007″
• Comments

Will Whitman’s eBay Legacy Help or Hurt Bid for Office
Kenneth Corbin, February 11 2009

• “14 percent of likely Republican voters said they backed Whitman”
• “”an argument that her opponents will make that she led the company when the expression inside the company was, ‘Even a monkey could drive this train,’”
• “The auction giant has also come under fire from some who had once been among its most loyal supporters – its sellers.”
• “A lot of the sellers would argue that eBay ultimately failed them”
• Comments

GOP gubernatorial candidate Whitman outlines stands
Michael Finnegen, February 11 2009

Meg Whitman’s Campaign – What’s Old is Not so New…
Robin Swanson, February 11 2009

• “Perhaps they’d like to sneak her into our subconscious since she’s only got a 17 percent favorability rating”

Meg Whitman Can’t Use the Buy it Now Option to Run For Governor
Tawny, February 11 2009

• “Those in the Tech World know Meg Whitman as the grim reaper behind EBay’s downfall”

Can Meg Whitman save California
Patricia Sellers, March 16 2009

• “What dirt are they going to dig up?” That’s one of many questions that Whitman’s friends are firing at her. The best “dirt” on Meg Whitman seems to be that in the past decade, she voted in elections less than half the time. There is “absolutely no excuse for it,” she has been saying in her campaign speeches, but when I ask her about her voting record, she lobs an excuse my way: “I was head down, building eBay, with two teenage sons and a neurosurgeon husband, and traveling half the time,” she says.”
• “there’s no denying that her performance as CEO sputtered in her last three years there. The company’s growth hit a wall. Profits fell. The stock, as high as $59 in late 2004, now trades around $12 a share.”
• “She did acknowledge that she left a bit of a mess at eBay”
• (Steve Poizner) ”Poizner, a Stanford-educated engineer, says, “If voters are looking to rebrand the state, she’s a very attractive candidate. But if voters are looking to rebuild the state, they’ll turn to me.”"
• “Jerry Brown, an energetic campaigner who was governor from 1975 to 1983. Brown displays a mix of ridicule and respect when he describes candidate Meg’s positioning this way: “‘I ran a business. I can buy my campaign. I have zero experience in government. I want to take on the most difficult state government job in America. Therefore, make me governor.’ That’s her campaign.”"
• “When Whitman tried to be a visionary, she sometimes scored (buying PayPal) and other times didn’t: She took a $1.4 billion write-down on Skype, acquired for $3.1 billion. “Did we pay too much? Yes,” she says, while insisting that eBay is better off owning Skype.”

Ada Lovelace Day: Meg Whitman
Dan Wilson, March 24 2009

• “Ada Lovelace Day encourages bloggers to write about women involved in technology and whilst Meg is clearly closely associated with technology, it would be hard to characterise her as a technologist. This has been both a strength and a weakness.”
• Sue [Bailey] said: ”It makes me very sad to think that someone would seek to stop someone else celebrating a person they thought worthy of celebration. That’s what ALD was all about, after all.”

Undoing Meg Whitman’s eBay
Saul Hansell, April 23 2009

• “Before voting for Meg Whitman for governor, California residents would do well to consider what has been happening at eBay since she stepped down as chief executive. John Donahoe, her successor, has pretty much disassembled all of her major strategic moves.”
• “He is undoing her acquisitions of Skype and StumbleUpon. It turns out that neither voice communications nor Web surfing have anything to do with what eBay does.”
• “Ms. Whitman’s plan to build sales of mainstream merchandise easily available elsewhere by using eBay’s structure — seven-day auctions, high merchant fees”

Meg Whitman: a female Checchi or Simon?
Garry South, May 7 2009

• “One of the major problems with wealthy business types attempting to cross over into politics is their own – how shall we say? – inflated self-impression.  Many really do envision themselves as smarter and more accomplished than officeholders who have succeeded in the political system for years or decades.  After all, they’ve run a business, created jobs, “met a payroll.””
• “Whitman’s tenure at eBay was not without controversy or failure.  For the last couple years under Whitman, the company experienced a marked slowdown in growth, and its stock lost half its value.  In 2005, she also engineered the $2.6 billion purchase of Skype, the Internet-based video calling service, believing that eBay buyers and sellers would find talking to each other directly to be peachy keen.  Instead, it turned out to be a lemon, and eBay wrote off Skype and is trying to dump it.”
• “While Whitman was CEO, the company also came under heavy fire for forgeries and stolen items, dishonest sellers and inaccurately described merchandise.  In addition, criticism was leveled at the Whitman-era eBay for generating revenue growth by ever-increasing fees on sellers, which was an unsustainable, self-defeating strategy.”

Meg Whitman to Draw Intense Media Scrutiny to eBay
Ina Steiner, May 7 2009

• “It will be interesting to see if California media will scrutinize what industry insiders call “eBay math” as Whitman continues to tout her record of job creation.”
• Comments

Steve Poizner for California Governor 2010 – Meg No Waay – web video
campaigntvads, May 12 2009

Mad Money Calls Out Whitman
Jim Cramer, June 10 2009

Former eBay honcho Meg Whitman brought her trophy husband
TG Daily Live, Gawker, July 10 2009

• “Former eBay honcho Meg Whitman brought her trophy husband, all the better to ask for gubernatorial campaign donations with.”

How eBay lost the China market
Sherman So, J. Christopher Westland, August 10 2009

• “Many believe Taobao beat global online auction king eBay in China by being free,  but not EachNet founder Bo Shao who sold the company to eBay in July 2003. A key catalyst was “migration”, the decision to terminate EachNet’s homegrown technology platform and move all EachNet users to the eBay US platform, said Shao.”
• “On the day of the migration, traffic to eBay China dropped by half. Despite the serious customer losses, Meg Whitman, then CEO of eBay, only learned about it a month after it occurred, on a visit to Shanghai.”
• “The company thought everything would be fine. After all, EachNet, now eBay China had an overwhelmingly dominant position and it planned to spend an extra $100 million to improve its technology platform and promote eBay’s brand in China. Any new competitors would be easy to crush.”
• “However, nothing went according to plan. A new rival came out of nowhere and eBay retreated from China four years later.“
• “What really caused eBay to lose its dominance in China was its decision to move its technology platform from China to the US”
• “The slow and unstable services frustrated users and caused them to leave eBay China in droves.”
• “After investing nearly $300 million ($180 million for acquiring Eachnet and $100 million as extra budget for its China push), eBay all but threw in the towel. It folded its China operation into a joint venture with Tom Online, a leading mobile value-added services provider in China at the end of 2006.”
• “eBay’s market share had shrunk to 7 percent by the second quarter of 2007″

Ebay still playing with the feedback
Cohibastore.com, September 19 2009

• “Meg&Co let it go for so long that they must have realized they need to monitor the entire site better and see just whats going on. Under Whitman nothing happened but fee increases and an overall degradation of the site. Like it not, JD and his cohorts are trying to fix things, rather than letting it wither on the vine like Meg was. This kind of research and testing is critical.”

Former CEO Whitman likely to take stand in eBay-Craigslist civil trial
Andrew Macintosh, September 26 2009

• “Meg Whitman may have to take time off from her Republican gubernatorial campaign next month to appear as a key witness at a Delaware civil trial featuring Web behemoths eBay and Craigslist.”
• “”The witness list has not been finalized yet, but it’s highly likely she will be testifying,” eBay spokeswoman Maggie Fitzpatrick”
• “As eBay’s former chief executive officer, Whitman allegedly oversaw its aggressive 2004 purchase of a minority 28 percent stake in Craigslist.”
• “Whitman’s involvement in eBay’s dispute with Craigslist stems from the 2004 investment. After she led the efforts to buy a minority stake, eBay launched its own overseas classified advertisement service, called Kijiji.com, in 2005.”
• “In its rival lawsuit in California and in its Delaware court documents, Craigslist alleges that eBay executives misled them from the start about their intentions.”

Steve Poizner – Meg Whitman Did Not Vote For 28 Years
campaigntvads, September 26 2009

While eBay Burned, Whitman Fiddled
Eric Jackson, October 01 2009

• “Whitman’s final years at eBay leave her open to criticism. She promoted a drunken-sailor approach to acquisitions, always overpaying and making little effort to stitch them together. A culmination was the $4.1 billion purchase of Skype in 2005″
• “more damaging in the long-run for eBay than overpaying was that Whitman didn’t get the intellectual property associated with Skype. This has allowed Skype’s founders to now come back and sue eBay for trying to unload the property recently at a valuation of $2.75 billion.”
• “Jan. 1, 2005. Since then, however, eBay has been in a tailspin with the stock down 59% vs. a Nasdaq decline of 3%”
• “Whitman’s last four years on the job in which her pay became dramatically disconnected with eBay’s stock price and her perks started to go through the roof.”
• “between 2005 and 2008, Whitman’s interest had drifted away from increasing the stock price of eBay to increasing her cash compensation and perks. Had anyone seen these clues — and, interestingly, perhaps Skoll did as he liquidated his entire eBay stake in 2006 — they might have pulled the ripcord on owning the stock in 2006 or 2007 when it was trading at $35, before the bottom fell out in the stock and it hit its nadir below $10 this past March.”
• “two years of lavish perks coincided with a time when eBay’s stock dropped 22%, even though Nasdaq was up 17%”
• “Whitman spent more than $1 million on personal air travel in 2006.”
• “They say that while Rome burned, Nero fiddled. At eBay in 2006, while the stock dropped and the Skype merger was a mess, Whitman flew to Hawaii and other locales on a private jet paid for from the shareholders’”
• “this “CEO entitlement mentality” that Whitman adopted in her final years on the job is that she’s passed the habit on to her successor. Donahoe racked up almost $280,000 worth of personal aircraft expenses in his first nine months on the job in 2008.”
• “Donahoe made $13.1 million last year for his nine months as CEO, while eBay’s stock dropped 55%, far wider than Nasdaq’s 30% loss”
• Comments

Call of Shame!
Jane Wells, October 2 2009

• “GM’s joint venture with Ebay [EBAY 22.91 0.21 (+0.93%) ]ended because it didn’t lead to sales.”
• “E-BAIL   Former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman bailed out of voting most of her life. The Sacramento Bee reports that the Republican gubernatorial candidate didn’t even register to vote until 2002, and still missed some major elections after that. Making matters worse, the Bee says Whitman earlier claimed she registered in 1998, which Whitman now says was “a mistake.” Her stumbling responses to reporters’ repeated questions only made matters worse.  Now she says, “I like many Americans was not as engaged as I should have been over the last 20 or 30 years. I was focused on raising a family, on my husband’s career, we moved many, many times, and it is no excuse. My voting record, my registration record is unacceptable. There is no excuse for it.” Let me just say that I raised a family, I supported my husband’s career, and I’ve moved a few times, and I have never missed a major election (and I’ve only missed one minor election). Does that make me material for governor? No, but Whitman’s right, she has no excuse.”

Can Meg Whitman’s eBay success translate in Sacramento?
Ken McLaughlin and Pete Carey, October 4 2009

• “Whitman certainly has her detractors, including many sellers who, ironically, complain that eBay during her reign erected a thicket of rules that were every bit as burdensome as the government regulations she now assails. Sellers also complain that, under pressure to meet Wall Street expectations, eBay under Whitman repeatedly jacked up fees, driving off many sellers and making the site far less profitable for others.”
• “The annual eBay Live! conferences — once an almost-evangelical gathering of buyers and sellers — became “bitch fests,” said Andrew Bergman, operations manager of Alpha & Omega Antiques, which does about $120,000 worth of business on eBay each year. “eBay just got too big for its britches,” he said.”
• “Other Whitman critics say she was simply lucky, having hopped on a bandwagon that was rolling down a road paved in gold.”
• “eBay could have been run by a Labrador retriever,” said Rosalinda Baldwin of the Auction Guild, a 10-year-old watchdog group that monitors complaints at online auction businesses.”
• “After being singled out in a congressional report that called the IPO system rigged and corrupt, Whitman issued an internal memo to eBay employees saying she got the shares because she was a personal client of Goldman Sachs.”
• “two professors who focus on business ethics — David Shapiro at the City University of New York and William Black at the University of Missouri-Kansas City — predict the issue might prove troublesome for her on the campaign trail.”  ”The fact that she could say she could learn no ethical lesson is illustrative of moral blindness,” Black said.”
• “What’s not in dispute is that as the traditional online business began slipping in 2005, Whitman began acquiring companies to boost growth. While PayPal — which currently contributes almost a third of eBay’s revenue — was a grand slam, other acquisitions didn’t work out so well. Clearly the worst decision was buying Skype for $3.1 billion, on the questionable theory that eBay buyers and sellers would flock to the service to talk to each other to close their deals. Whitman eventually admitted she paid too much for Skype, and the company took a $1.4 billion write-down.”

I Stand By My Prediction
ebay_flyer, October 5 2009

• “I didn’t realize that was the deal when I shook Megs hand at Ebay Live 1.
• I’m a legend in the halls of Ebay!
• Ebay Pays My Bills ~ LOL“

The arrogance may be Whitman’s
George Skelton, October 5 2009

• “The political novice who would be governor calls state workers ’selfish and arrogant.’ That isn’t a sound management practice.”
• “a bit grating recently to read that billionaire political novice Meg Whitman had called state civil servants “selfish and arrogant” in officially announcing her candidacy for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.”
• “Whitman felt she had more important things to do than participate in democracy’s most basic civic duty. She couldn’t be bothered. Had little interest in public policy.”  ”Now she wants to be governor. Is that arrogant?”

Who junked eBay’s lawn chairs?
VenturaCountyStar.com, October 5 2009

• “one of Whitman’s first acts after being hired in February 1998 was that she “replaced the lawn chairs with corporate cubicles.”"
• “Steve Westly, also an early eBay executive, I had paraphrased what Westly told me about one of his first acts when he was hired in 1997 as vice president of business development: “to order the office lawn chairs replaced with traditional furniture.”"
• “Adam Cohen’s book “The Perfect Store.” Cohen puts the year of the lawn chairs’ demise at 1997, but credits neither Westly nor Whitman.”

eMeg Stumbles
Jerry Roberts, October 8 2009

• “Steve Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner, who posted a detailed narrative (tinyurl.com/y85tawr) of her shifting statements, along with a batch of YouTube videos using her own words to question her integrity.”  “Meg Whitman’s different stories on her non-voting record have raised serious concerns as to what is true and what is deception,” said Poizner spokesperson Jarrod Agen.”
• “eBay billionaire’s laissez faire attitude about the most basic duty of citizenship could feed the perception that eMeg has a sense of entitlement, not to mention disdain for the democratic process.”
• [Meg Whitman] ““Go find it””

NEG Meg The Series 2010

:::

The “NEG MEG” phrase was popularized by ‘Ming the Merciless’, an AuctionBytes poster.

NEG Meg The Series is not affiliated with Ming the Merciless or anyone else.  Yet.

Got links?

We’re not finished. We want links. Post a comment with links.

:::

Hello,

Ok so the previous post was merely a summary of my basic life plan, and now I’m beginning to sound like an ultra-dork, but I promise you it will get better from here on in. So the beginning of September came and went and I found an apartment in the South end of the city with my friend Caitlin. We moved in on the first, and I was also fortunate enough to acquire a somewhat serious job at a delightful little candy store downtown, called Sweet Jane’s. I had always had secret or maybe not so secret dreams about working there when I was a student, so now I am living out those dreams.

With that taken care of, I could move on to my city exploration task. I think I should tell you all that I am not exceptionally great at many things, so am often finding that I need to learn and practice even the simplest things over and over. For example, I still have no clue how people do their shoe laces up with the one loop method, I only understand bunny ears.

While we traveled in Asia, I found myself in many clubs and bars and experiencing the nightlife. I realized very quickly that I have no idea how to dance, or at least don’t feel comfortable with myself dancing for fear or being ridiculed by those better than me. Solution? Learn to dance. 

Number one on my list became to search out dance classes in Halifax. I figured that it would be unfair to only take one, as there are so many different kinds of dance. So I chose two. For the last two weeks I have been attending a Latin dance class at Shake It Dance Studio on Cornwallis Street, up in the North End, which runs for ten weeks in total.  And this coming week, I begin eight weeks of Uganda dance at the Maritimes African Dance Centre.

Now that I have covered the dance portion of my life, I thought to myself, “I’m going to need more cardio physical activity!” so I followed that search up with a kijiji search for classes. I have found that Kijiji can be real inspiration to anyone who is bored and looking for something to do. Not only did I learn about a lot of fun stuff to do in the city, but I also learned that I could purchase a male llama for $1000 and get a free female one! (Too bad I don’t have a backyard, or $1000)

On Kijiji, I was once again provided with a brand new set of ideas. Boot camps. Now I am not one for discipline, but I can tell you this, I hate going to the gym, so I would much rather have someone boss me around for an hour while I exercise. In the Halifax area, there are several women’s workout boot camps that I could attend, but I have chosen to take the Core Essentials boot camp on Saturday mornings for first timers. Some of you may be wondering why I chose this one, and to be honest it was a combination of the time and the cost. The other boot camps require you to bring supplies like weights and yoga mats, which are things that I don’t have and they also give you a bunch of “free stuff,” like shirts and books and recipe calenders. I say “free” in quotes because the cost of these boot camps are almost $60 more than the Core Essentials, which is as I understand the same kind of workout. I am there for the workout, not the fluffy stuff.

Boot camp doesn’t start until next Saturday, October 2nd, and I am pretty excited

Just when you thought I had a full schedule, I signed up for more classes. Tomorrow, Sunday, September 27th, I start a Hula Hoop class at In Essence studio on Barrington Street. It is apparently one of the best workouts you can do for yourself, and also sounds like a blast. I’ll let you know how I do, because as of this moment, I can’t keep a hula hoop going for longer than 6.3 seconds.

I promise you that this is the last addition to my after work life for the next couple of weeks, but I was also fortunate enough to discover and get accepted into a DJ program with Reachability. I started the class last week and I will make a separate post to let you all know how it went, otherwise this is just going to get crazy! 

So there you have it, a mass overview of the fun things to do in Halifax. These are all activities that I know little or nothing at all about and am going to fill you in on all the details. 

Check back soon for updates on all the fun stuff I’m doing. Don’t worry I’ll be sure to include all the other fun stuff I do, like nights on the town, and random trips and of course bad photos of funny things.

Spec