EBay's Whitman to retire, Donahue for replacement

EBay Inc. Chief Executive Officer is set to step down from the company after serving for 10 years at the online auctioneer.

According to reports released on Tuesday, Meg Whitman started delegating most of her daily responsibilities as well as working on a plan of succession, a decision that could be made within few weeks.

John Donahue, 47, head of eBay's auction business, is the predicted successor for Whitman.

The news about Whitman's retirement made eBay shares to drop 30 cents to $28.03 in morning trading after sinking to a 52-week low of $26.02 earlier in the day.

Whitman joined eBay in 1998, but the firm had 30 employees and $86 million revenues.

Currently eBay employs 15,000 people with $5.97 billion in revenues last year.

EBay operates the PayPal electronic payment system, Skype Internet telephony services and ticket broker StubHub.com.

The firm will report its earnings for the fourth quarter on Wednesday.

EBay reported a net profit of US$1.1 billion and it expects 2007 revenue to increase to US$7.6 billion.