Online auction website eBay said last night that its chief executive Meg Whitman would step down in March.
The news came as eBay announced that net profits in the last three months of 2007 soared 53% to $530.9m, or 39 cents per share.
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998 while eBay was a US-only site with 500,000 registered users and 30 employees. It now has hundreds of millions of users worldwide and more than 15,000 employees.
She will be replaced by John Donahoe, president of the company's marketplaces division, which accounts for 70% of revenue.
EBay joined other technology companies in setting expectations for the current quarter which were below analysts' expectations. EBay estimates revenues for the first quarter will range from $2 billion to $2.05 billion and that profits will be between 37 and 39 cents per share.
Consumer spending usually slows in the months after the Christmas shopping season, and a recession in the US could apply further brakes in that market.
