The latest to leave is Dan Morales, the chief information officer (CIO), who has been with eBay since 2011. Top Execs at both eBay US and on eBay’s foreign sites have been leaving at a rapid rate.
Other recent departures include:
- Susana Voces, “general manager of eBay Spain and Italy
- Laura Chambers, vice president of Shipping & Transportation, Authentication and Consumer Selling
- eBay Chief Product Officer R.J. Pittman
- Linda Cornelison, senior manager of Global Customer Trust and Returns
- head of eBay marketplaces in the US, Scott Cutler
eBay is going through a major restructuring in a bid to recapture its growth which declined dramatically under its prior CEO, John Donohoe However, the new CEO, Devin Wenig, has not improved things. It’s no secret that eBay sellers and most employees at eBay despised John Donahoe. Devin Wenig is liked a bit more. However, when he took over, he promised to return eBay to its roots, such as bringing back its focus on collectibles, but that has yet to happen, and it’s no longer clear if it ever will.
eBay recently laid off over 500 employees including 300 at its San Jose headquarters. In addition, eBay recently announced that it is reorganizing its business units, and will consolidate its various geographical regions into a single team, The new unit will be led by general manager of markets and senior vice president, Mr. Jay Lee. His responsibility will include the Americas, APAC, UK, Central and Southern Europe, and all Cross-Border Trade (i.e. Global Trade).
It’s not only the executives, but sellers (including myself) are continuing to bail out of eBay at a rapid rate. In its last quarterly report, it showed total sales growth at about 1%, which if far below industry averages.
An activist investor group led by Elliott and Starboard, believes the eBay needs to be completely reorganized to return to growth. One big push they are lobbying for is for eBay to sell off their non-related businesses such as StubHub and eBay Classifieds.
The last activist investor was Carl Icahn who forced eBay to split off PayPal. PayPal has experienced incredible growth since the split, whereas eBay has gone into a stall.
