Ebay Inc

In the brave new world of online auto sales, there are no smiling, smooth-talking sales people to help seal a deal. So how can General Motors Co. sell more cars on EBay? It may be as simple as running a lot of photos, having short spiffy descriptions and responding to e-mails quickly, according to EBay "power sellers" who earned their title by regularly selling at least $1,000 worth of merchandise each month. "The most successful sellers create great listings, with clear concise titles and lots of quality pictures," said Brad Schepp, coauthor of several books about selling on EBay, including "EBay PowerSeller Secrets."

EBay Inc. drew 5% fewer visitors to its U.S. auction website in March, the ninth consecutive monthly decline, according to ComScore Networks Inc., a Reston, Va.-based company that measures Internet use. The number of visitors dropped to 65.9 million last month from 69.7 million a year earlier, ComScore said. The decrease capped a quarter in which EBay missed analysts' profit estimates for the first time and its chief executive considered leaving.

EBay Inc. lost a bid to overturn a jury finding that it infringed a Virginia company's patents for conducting sales over the Internet. The federal judge, however, reduced the amount it would have to pay in damages to $29.5 million. MercExchange of Great Falls, Va., claimed that EBay and its Half.com unit infringed patents for the technology. The dispute centered on EBay's "fixed price" sales. A jury in May told the online auction company to pay $35 million. U.S. District Judge Jerome B.

Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of EBay Inc., has resigned from the board of directors of the online auction company and two other corporations, fueling speculation that she is preparing for a 2010 run for California governor. The resignations, which were effective Wednesday, from EBay, Procter & Gamble Co. and DreamWorks SKG were made for personal reasons, Whitman spokesman Henry Gomez said Monday. Gomez declined to comment "on anything having to do with the governor's race."

EBay Inc. Chief Executive Meg Whitman is expected to announce her retirement as early as today and hand the reins to the successor she has groomed to reinvigorate the Internet company as it wrestles with a slowdown in its auction business. John Donahoe, the 47-year-old president of EBay's Marketplaces group, is the leading contender to succeed Whitman, according to people familiar with the matter.

EBay Inc. said Tuesday that it would cut by as much as 50% the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other e-commerce sites. To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell -- a method EBay says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell. EBay will also increase fees on some items, including auctioned goods selling for less than $25.

Facing competition from other e-commerce sites and a revolt from its top sellers, EBay Inc. said Monday that it would lower listing fees on media sold on its site, including books, music, movies and video games. EBay had only last month announced that it would be changing its fee structure, agitating many media sellers who would have ended up paying more. The speed with which EBay responded to their complaints pleased some of them.

EBay Inc. has settled a seven-year patent dispute with MercExchange that prompted an important intellectual-property ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. The San Jose-based online auction company said Thursday that it had bought the three MercExchange patents it had been accused of violating. The price was not disclosed, but EBay said the amount would not materially affect its financial results. Great Falls, Va.

EBay Inc. was ordered by a French court to pay nearly $63 million to luxury-goods maker LVMH, which produces Louis Vuitton- and Dior-labeled products. The French company, whose full name is LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, had claimed in a lawsuit that the Internet auctioneer had not done enough to stop the sale of counterfeit goods. The ruling also banned EBay from selling perfumes by the company.

When Pierre Omidyar founded the EBay auction website in 1995, he built it around a simple core value: "People are basically good." Ah, the good old days. Although most transactions come off without a hitch, anyone who regularly uses EBay knows that fraud is a danger on a site that depends to a great extent on trust, both for buyers and sellers.