eBay's Acquisition of Skype: Will the Gamble Work?

He created a simple business model which allowed buyers and sellers to decide on the value of items and connect with each other, for a small commission for every item placed and sold on the site. Using this model, he started Auction Web (eBay's earlier name), which soon became a popular website. Omidyar wanted the power of the market to stay with individuals and not with companies. He felt that it was important to let users take the responsibility for building a community.

He encouraged users to communicate directly with him by email so that he could incorporate their suggestions and resolve the problems they faced on the site...

As the company was growing rapidly, the founders felt the need to bring in a person who could instill a customer-centric vision into the company and focus on marketing and brand building.

eBay was still a predominantly 'techie-driven' company and Omidyar and Skoll realized that what they needed was a person who had the ability to sustain eBay's meteoric growth in user base as well as the management expertise to deliver consistent growth in revenues and profits.

Benchmark delegated the responsibility of finding such a manager to David Beirne (Beirne), a well-known headhunter in Silicon Valley. Beirne convinced Meg Whitman (Whitman) to join eBay...