Petition for Removal of Meg Whitman as eBay CEO

To eBay inc.,
In recent years, eBay.com has moved farther away from the original online auction concept, and continues further on this course today, and all the while fees for sellers continue to rise, technical glitches riddle the site, rampant fraud goes unchecked, and new listings have dropped to a level not seen since 2003. These issues, which affect eBay sellers - the core instruments of growth and profit on the site - are slowing leading to the demise of the site as we know it; a site that was built on the idea of an efficient, low cost way for items to be sold over the internet to the highest bidder. As an eBay user, I would like to see eBay return its focus back to being the leading online auction site, starting with the ouster of CEO Meg Whitman.

Slow growth in recent years can be attributed to several factors, but the actions of Whitman and the company's acquisition of largely intangible internet capital and the efforts and money put into such investments detract from the ability for eBay.com to maintain its original auction site and continue rapid growth in the online auction sector. Under Whitman's direction, eBay has been focusing too heavily on merging technologies, adding internet capital and expansion into areas of the globe that are questionable ventures to say the least. This focus has derailed, to a large extent, the efforts and ability for eBay to grow domestically and in the larger foreign markets where eBay is already a viable marketplace. Millions of potential new users acquire computers and internet access each year in the US, and eBay is largely ignoring these potential customers with their nonchalant assumption that these new internet users will miraculously find their way to the site on their own.

eBay and Paypal continue to be a monopolistic entity that refuse to seriously address fraud issues and the concerns of the user base. By ignoring these obvious threats to growth, eBay continues to hemorrhage active users and their money, justifying the loss by citing the number of new users and largely not reporting the number of inactive user accounts registered with the site.

Finally, Whitman has either refused, or has been ineffective, in hiring of managers who hire engineers. eBay continues (at an ever increasing rate) to have a multitude of technical issues that result in slow searches, erroneous searches, portions of the site not functioning properly, and listing tools and management programs that function fairly at best. Whitman's team continues to push for "changes" to the site in order to maintain "vibrancy," but these changes are often short-sighted and very poorly executed - all the while ignoring the wishes of the collective base of regular users and professional sellers.

The time for a change is long overdue for a shake-up in the management of eBay, one that would benefit both the user base and the shareholders.