Whitman Talks With Disney, Stays With EBay
news.com.com
Monday March 14, 5:37 pm ET
By Rachel Konrad, AP Business Writer
After Disney Interview, EBay CEO Tells Employees She Wants to Be Part of Auction Site's Future
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Meg Whitman routinely rejected interviews for prestigious jobs since taking over eBay Inc. seven years ago. But when Walt Disney Co. board members called earlier this year, she couldn't flat-out refuse.
Longtime Disney CEO Michael Eisner had been grooming Robert Iger, the company's president and chief operating officer, for the top position. But directors were also seriously considering one external candidate -- Whitman, who worked for Disney from 1989 to 1992 as senior vice president of marketing for consumer products.
She flew to Southern California a week ago, where Eisner and board members interviewed her for three hours. On Friday, she rescinded her resume.
Although the Princeton University economics major and Harvard Business School graduate was concerned that the board wouldn't select her, one source said, she also decided she'd be happier at eBay.
"Quite frankly, she was intrigued -- she'd be working in the footsteps of Walt Disney and felt she needed to explore it because of that," the source familiar with the recruitment said on condition of anonymity. "But it was a long shot that she would have taken the job."
On Sunday night, Whitman, 48, sent eBay employees an e-mail explaining her thinking.
"I have a fond spot in my heart for the company. It's quite possibly the only other company I would ever think of running after eBay," wrote Whitman, a native of Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., on Long Island.
But ultimately, she said, she'd stick with eBay.
"Great things remain to be done, and I very much want to be a part of that future," wrote Whitman, who took over the day-to-day operations in 1998 from Silicon Valley programmer Pierre Omidyar.
Before eBay, Whitman lead Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro Corp.'s preschool division, responsible for Mr. Potato Head and Playskool toys.
When a recruiter called about eBay in early 1998, she refused. She didn't want to yank her two sons from Boston-area schools or force her husband, neurosurgeon Griffith Harsh IV, into the job market. She grudgingly flew to San Jose -- then quickly changed her mind.
EBay stock and stock options have made Whitman a theoretical multibillionaire and one of the richest woman CEOs in the world. Headhunters say her initial decision to interview with Disney doesn't necessarily imply dissatisfaction with eBay.
"She owes it to herself to interview and not turn a deaf ear and at least hear what they have to say," said Mitchell Berger, CEO of New York-based executive recruitment firm Stephen-Bradford Search. "Maybe now she's sitting back and saying, `I'm at the right place for me at this point.'"
EBay shares closed Monday at $36.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, down 4.6 percent, or $1.77. The stock -- one of the few to survive the dot-com sector's collapse -- hit a 52-week high of $59.21 in December but declined when executives said they wouldn't meet Wall Street's bullish expectations for the rest of the year. |
