Philip Cohen

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

How can the management of a company, whose reason for being has been so enjoyed by so many for so long, become so despised by so many of those same people—and still survive? Not much longer, I suspect.

John (aka “Noise”) Donahoe, surely, you've done enough damage to eBay, please take the “golden parachute” and offer your executive services to Intel—although where Intel gets the idea that you have any ability, I cannot imagine.

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

Hi Bob,

I don’t need to be able to see the look on you face to know that you quote that statement with tongue firmly in cheek.

I have analyses a number of eBay’s disingenuous statements at:
www.auctionbytes.com/f...

Further, I always refer to eBay users as “users”, for to refer to them as “members”, as eBay does, is to imply that the organisation is run for some benefit of those “members”—it is not: No action taken (or not taken) by eBay management has anything to do with benefiting or protecting eBay users (buyers or sellers): eBay’s every action (or lack thereof) is purposed solely towards desperately attempting to improve the appearance of eBay’s bottom line by whatever means necessary—undoubtedly more to do with the protecting of executive performance bonuses (or jobs) than with any direct consideration for shareholders—and if at any time there appears to be some benefit to eBay “users”, that will be purely coincidental.

This arrogant eBay management clearly think that their “users” are all stupid. Well the chicken are now starting to come home to roost; I look forward to the Q209 comparison between eBay and Amazon.

The real question for me is, can this “turkey” Donahoe possibly survive another Xmas?

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

Oh Patricia, and were you taken in by any of these scam text messages?

I believe that anyone who is taken in by a scam SCO “text” message that comes via the eBay messaging system from a registered eBay user who is clearly identifiable as not being the seller, is an idiot. Such a person’s mental defect should not be eBay’s problem, and I have no doubt that they would agree with that premise.

I’ll say it again, “hidden bidders” has nothing to do with fraudulent SCOs. The only purpose served by “hidden bidders” is to obscure all but the most naive and blatant of shill bidding: what the consumer cannot see, eBay does not have to worry about.

eBay is a most unscrupulous, devious, disingenuous organisation ...

Spend 10 minutes and read my case study at www.auctionbytes.com/f...
I think that I have therein demolished all of eBay’s disingenuous “spin”.

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

Patricia,

Fraudulent SCOs were effectively stopped dead in their tracks by eBay’s blocking of access to users’ direct email addresses. “Hidden bidders”, on the other hand, serves no purpose other than to lessen the transparency of the auction platform thereby effectively obscuring any but the most naive and blatant of the shill bidding, that is undoubtedly now running rampant, so that eBay does not have to waste any of their valuable resources doing anything about it. Unprincipled, unscrupulous, disingenuous (or, if none of these, simply stupid) …

Then what more could one expect from a turkey such as “Noise” Donahoe who, at this stage of the game, can have only one thing on his mind: saving his skin (forget about the above-the-table “performance” bonuses, for him they are forever gone, I suspect).

And you all thought that we had left all such unprincipled “robber barons” behind in the twentieth century. Not so. Their descendants are alive and well and tinkering with eBay. Which then begs the question, where are those consumer affairs regulators whose job it is to protect we simple consumers from such greedy men as this?

And, for anyone who buys on eBay, a detailed case study of a classic instance of blatant shill bidding (undetected by eBay) and the abuse of eBay’s proxy bidding system—all exacerbated by eBay’s introduction of “hidden bidders”—and a detailed comment on eBay’s disingenuous attitude thereto, at www.auctionbytes.com/f...

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

But, Patricia, you still accept, at face, value eBay's given reasons for the introduction of "hidden bidders"; whereas I accept nothing they say at face value, and will always believe that the purpose of “hidden bidders” was always primarily to obscure all but the most blatant of shill bidding, and I believe that my case study establishes that beyond any doubt. And, I have further developed my comments thereon, specifically on the way eBay presents the data that is supposed to enable buyers to protect themselves from such criminal activity (still at www.auctionbytes.com/f...)

Cramer's Mad Money - Profits of Doom (6/9/09)

I have no doubt that eBay buys analysts like they buy governments (and for a lot less consideration), that's probably how they get away with knowingly “aiding and abetting” unscrupulous shill bidding sellers to defraud consumer (via their “hidden bidders” nonsense) with nary a peep from the consumer protection authorities.

I have no doubt that Donohoe’s ongoing desperate attempts to recover his performance bonus will bring another reduction in revenue for Q209. No amount of petty 99c promotions is going to lift listing numbers sufficiently to offset the damage being done to this once-greater company by this latter-day Captain Morton (no jokes about potted plants, please). Where are you Mr Roberts when we so desperately need you?

The real question is, are the stockholders going to let this turkey survive yet another Xmas?

Donahoe clearly is a skilled company dismantler; any attempt by him to stop the rot at eBay is: too little, too late, too greedy, too arrogant. He apparently thought he had an impregnable monopoly and that they could do whatever they liked: how wrong he was; and apparently, they still don’t understand that it is the welfare of the customers that counts, not that of the good captain and his executive officers.

Actually, I doubt that he is even skilled in “wrecking” companies. If I was him I would be using all my MBA skills to offload PayPal to the credit card companies because the more successful the “clunky” PayPal becomes (?) the more likely the credit card companies will add a like card/terminal-less dialogue to their portal (and they will do it properly), and that my friends will be the end of PayPal outside of the mandated Donahoe-ever-shrinking eBay marketplace.

For anyone that is interested, a detailed case study of another instance of blatant shill bidding on eBay, “hidden bidders”, the abuse of eBay’s proxy bidding system, and a detailed comment on eBay’s disingenuous attitude thereto, at www.auctionbytes.com/f...