A former chief executive officer of online auction giant eBay Inc. took the witness stand on Monday to testify against the “unfair” cut made online classified site Craigslist to eBay’s shares in the company.
Meg Whitman, in her testimony, said that eBay has lost its seat on Craigslist’s board of directors after the company has illegally lowered its ownership from 28.4 to 24.85 percent in 2008.
She likewise denied accusations that eBay was out to steal company secrets from Craigslist, which allegedly caused it losing its seat.
She pointed that they were able to acquire shares from the online classified website through Philip Knowlton, a disgruntled shareholder, in 2004. She said that they planning to acquire the Craigslist through the process in a bid to keep competitors at bay.
“We are interested in acquiring Craigslist that time and we would have lover to have bought the entire company. We also understand early on that an acquisition would be impossible,” said Whitman, who is currently running for California governor.
It will be recalled that Craigslist has also filed a lawsuit against eBay in a San Francisco court a month after, accruing its larger rival of utilizing its seat in the board of directors to browse into information about the company before launching its own classified website called Kijiji.
Craigslist also accused eBay of employing dirty tactics in redirecting online traffic away from the official website of the classified ads giant.
But Whitman dismissed the allegations, saying that they have paid Craigslist some $32 million for the share in the company in exchange for special privileges including the ability to block new issuance of shares.
She also pointed that around $16 million goes to Knowlton for the acquisition while company co-founders Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster received $8 million each.
Whitman also cited that they have sought a “collaborative relationship” with the co-founder, saying that they want to be “a good partner”.
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