Meg Whitman A Case study on e Bay

Meg Whitman A Case study on e. Bay As presented by “Team United. Nations”

• Short History of e. Bay, Inc. • Meg Whitman • Challenges - dramatic and rapid growth. • Advice on how e. Bay can best deal with the challenges • What “team united nations” would do about the Kruse acquisition if we were Meg Whitman. • Pros and cons of each decision • Influences over our decision. • Our Decision and reason for our choice. Overview of case presentation

e. Bay: A Short History • e. Bay is a user-empowered online community auction site. • Sells stuffs ranging from small antiques to cars. • Bottoms –up; Hands- off approach – Transaction alone. • Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar as a pet project. (He was anti-commercial). • First named Auction Web site. • Expanded and Pierre had to quit at General Magic and joined by Jeff Skoll. • By Jan 1997, Pierre felt e. Bay’s expansion warranted a new CEO. • Marketing expertise and Cultural Fit.

Meg Whitman • Meg Whitman – Marketing strategy & cultural fit. • Youngest of 3 children – raised on Long Island. • Graduate of Princeton University 1977 • Harvard Business school – 1979. • Worked at Proctor & Gamble, Bain & co. , Walt Disney Co. & Florist Transworld Delivery. • Hasbro’s Inc. Pre School. • Then EBay. • Currently at HP.

Timeline of Key activities during Whitman’s Tenure • March 1998 : Meg Whitman signs on as CEO of e. Bay. • April 1998 : Developed strategy for system capacity and e. Bay’s marketing strategy. • May 1998: Reorganize Engineering department. • June 1998: Scot Cook and Howard Schultz join e. Bay’s board. • August 1998: Brian Swette and Michael Jacobson join e. Bay. • September 1998: e. Bay’s IPO • January 1999: Respond to community safety issues & Matt Bannick joins e. Bay. • March 1999: Sign strategic partnership with AOL. • May 1999: Announce decision to open Salt Lake city customer service facility

• Adjusting to a formal business structure • Communication between departments • Technological issues Challenges e. Bay will face during growth

• Creating a business structure with employees not used to the structure • Bloomberg situation • Initial employees mindset (engineers) Creating a formal business structure

• Inability to understand the jargon of each different department • Setting up a system to put a band aid on the problem • Come up with a plan to either hire business people with an IT background or have a structured training for each department to understand basic jargon of each other Communication between departments

• Website was crashing. • Too much online traffic at once. • Hackers (creates trust issues with customers) Technology issues

Question 2 – “To Kruse or not to Kruse”

• Meet with Pierre and Upper leadership at e. Bay. • Culture - Needs. - Benefits. - Deal Agreements. Team United Nation in Meg Whitman’s Position

• Meet with Kruse International - Their Plan & Vision. - Mutual Benefits. - Kruse’s Culture & Vision – Money or Culture. - Other Common Grounds. Team United Nation in Meg Whitman’s Position

Pros Cons • ROI • CEO conflicts. • Expanding Clientele • Cultural Differences. • Bringing in new ideas and • Outrageous Growth. strategies. • Increased Profile with Wall street. Weighing the Options • Loss of Community Spirit. • May Dilute EBay's profit • Technology

We will "KRUSE" Our Decision

Acquisition of Kruse will result in: - Increase in EBay's revenue through auction of high-end collectible cars. - Increase in e. Bay clientele. - Stay ahead of online payment competition through Ball point. - Increased profile with Wall street. Decision - Rationale

Acquisition of Kruse will resulted in: - Cost $275 million dollars but was worth it. - Increase in e. Bay clientele. - Stayed ahead of online payment competition through Ball point. - Increased profile with Wall street. • Retained its online community spirit till date. • Still very much relevant despite the stiff competition. Decision - Reality

Cnet. com (1999). Ebay acquires two firms. Retrevied from https: //www. cnet. com/news/ebay-acquires-two-firms/ Flowers, Rodney. (2016) Leadership theories. Powerpoint Hill A. Linda, Farkas T. Maria (2005). Meg Whitman at ebay inc. Harvard business school. Norton, Jim (2014). Top websites crash as web 'starts to run out of space Web. Fears major technical problems could become regular occurrence. Retrieved from http: //www. dailymail. co. uk/sciencetech/article-2724495/Top-websites-crash-web-starts-run-space-Fears-majortechnical-problems-regular-occurrence. html References

Thank you The end