Sep 26, 2009 2:05 PM

    * Report

EBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe, working to reignite sales at the company's
e-commerce site, said he's open to the idea of splitting off its
faster-growing PayPal division.

EBay would consider that step if PayPal no longer had synergy with the
parent company, Donahoe said at a conference in Las Vegas. He said he
regularly asks himself whether eBay is hampering PayPal's development.

EBay expects PayPal's sales to double to $5 billion by 2011, making
the unit its biggest moneymaker. Donahoe has already made plans to
offload a separate division -- the Skype Internet-calling business --
because it doesn't fit with the rest of eBay. PayPal could follow a
similar path, he said, without specifying a timeline.

"When I feel the business will be better off separately, we'll do what
we did with Skype," he said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ebay_may_spin_off_paypal_M2a2b2...

What they should do is "spin off" John Donohoe himself. He ruined eBay
for small/average sellers.

On Oct 5, 8:48 am, ebaystocks <donaldshorr...@aol.com> wrote:

John Donahoe did not just ruin eBay for small/average sellers. Donahoe
has destroyed buyer confidence in eBay with constant tinkering and
manipulation of search which is ongoing. Shattered buyer confidence is
the reason eBay's sales have declined y/y for the last 3 quarters.

Buyers shop online to find items quickly, complete their purchase and
get on to other things. Donahoe's eBay has made finding what you are
looking for more difficult, especially compared to sites like Amazon.
This explains Amazon's continued growth and eBay's prolonged decline.

Donahoe has been directing search manipulation in order to assure the
preferred Diamond Sellers receive the best exposure and placement in
search. The results have been higher prices which have driven buyers
to search and buy elsewhere, and small sellers to take their goods to
other marketplaces.

eBay revenue is down because while Donahoe has brought in Diamond
level sellers, he cut deals to provide those select sellers an
extremely lower fee schedule. Diamond sellers continue to flood eBay
listings at no cost, and when their items sell, eBay receives lower
final value fees as well. Combined with the thousands of full fee
paying sellers that have exited eBay, it is no wonder eBay no longer
generates sales or realizes revenues at former levels.

As long as John Donahoe continues to control eBay, the likely hood of
eBay sales returning to their former level are zero.

Stock analysts listening to Donahoe believe that he is improving the
eBay marketplace.

My challenge to analysts is to explain how steadily declining sales
and the continued alienation of both buyers and sellers alike
justifies the recommendation that eBay is a stock worth investing in.

eBay is 2 quarterly reports away from seeing their stock price plummet
back to the sub $10.00 range once the holiday sales fiasco in the
making becomes a reality.

PayPal Launches Own Forum as It Moves toward Independence from eBay

PayPal launched a Community Help Forum as a resource for members to
find answers to questions, share PayPal experiences and best
practices, and troubleshooting tips. The company said its goal was to
provide PayPal members with an avenue to communicate with one another.

The move comes as PayPal becomes increasingly important to eBay Inc.,
which continues to separate the functions of its two businesses -
payments and marketplaces. Previously PayPal users had only the
discussion boards on eBay (located here). eBay has taken over its
dispute resolution process from PayPal, and financial releases now put
the payments business ahead of marketplaces.

In September, eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe indicated he would consider a
PayPal spin-off. He said that while there were still synergies between
PayPal and eBay, "If and when I feel the businesses are better off
separately, we'll do what we did with Skype."

Next week, PayPal will hold its first dedicated developer's conference
which promises to be a major event for the company and was sold out
early.

In addition to the newly launched help forum, found here, PayPal users
can also continue to tweet questions to the @AskPayPal Twitter handle

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m10/i30/s01