eBay to name new CEO
The Internet shopping site is expected to announce that a former executive at Hasbro and Disney will become its president and CEO.
Whitman succeeds Pierre Omidyar, eBay's founder, who becomes chairman of the company's board.
Privately held eBay, considered an IPO candidate, is a player in the burgeoning online auction business. Others include Onsale, First Auction, and Auction Universe. OnSale's IPO, for one, has been highly successful.
The company declined comment on its new CEO, but Whitman's biography already is posted on eBay's Web site.
It reads: "Assuming the mantle of president and CEO of eBay in March 1998, Meg was previously the general manager of Hasbro's preschool division."
From 1995 to 1997, Whitman was president and chief executive of Florists Transworld Delivery, the biography reads. Between 1989 to 1992 she was at Disney, and her titles included senior vice president of marketing for the Disney consumer products division.
Whitman is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and of Princeton University.
Based in San Jose, California, eBay provides a one-to-one trading site in an auction format. It hosts more than one million auctions per month in 500 categories, including antiques, toys, dolls, stamps, and jewelry.
eBay's financial backers include venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, whose other investments include PointCast.