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Comment by mootothemax | Hacker News Reader

What do people think of Meg Whitman's record at eBay?

From her Wikipedia page: During her ten years with the company she oversaw expansion from 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue. [1]

Seems pretty impressive to me. It's also easy to forget how many companies tried and failed in this space, including the likes of Yahoo.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman

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The growth is impressive, but did Whitman cause it to happen, or did she manage it as it was happening? My opinion is that she managed it as it was happening. That may make her a competent manager, but I think HP needs much more than just a competent manager. HP should be about technology leadership, especially if the commodity PC business is sold off.

Yes. eBay is a textbook natural monopoly, because buyers want the best selection and sellers want as many buyers as possible to find their stuff. All she had to do at eBay was not screw it up -- which is something, but not the same thing at all as the task she now faces at HP.

You can ask that question about almost any leader, especially non-founder CEOs -- were they just sitting on top for the ride or did they do it themselves. One thing that Meg Whitman definitely executed was the acquisition of PayPal which is now responsible for probably $20+ billion of EBay's enterprise value.

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