Ebay had named Walmart’s Jamie Lannone as it’s new CEO as the company deals with pressure from it’s activist investor Starboard Value to shake up its management.
This decision came nearly one month right after Starboard announced its plans to install about four directors on the 14-members board of eBay and also requires the company hires an outsider as its permanent Chief Executive. Starboard owns more than 1% of eBay’s stock.
Before the appointment of the new CEO, the current interim CEO was the company’s CFO, Scott Schenkel who took the place right after Devin Wenig stepped down back in September due to differences with the eBay’s board.
Lannone on the other hand had handled leadership positions in eBay back from 2001 to 2009 and currently serves as COO at Walmart eCommerce and will begin his term as CEO of eBay on April 27.
Starboard did not respond to a request for comment.
According to hedge fund in March made it known eBay had been slowly separating its classified business from its marketplace business. The company sold its ticketing unit, StubHub for the sum of $4.05 billion after activist investor Elliott Management Corp and Starboard urged its sales as part of a plan that could double the values of the company.
“Today’s announcement of Jamie as the new CEO of eBay is a huge positive for the company,” said Jesse Cohn, an Elliott partner and eBay board member.
“Over the past year, eBay has realized full value for Stubhub and is in the process of exploring value-maximizing options for its Classifieds division.”
Meanwhile eBay had said it has plans to release an update on its classified business by the middle of the year 2020 while the share of the company were 1.19% higher at $34.23 in morning trade.