Carl Icahn’s Interview on eBay Inc (EBAY)

For many years, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) has been known as the top online auction website in the world. While many enjoy what the site has to offer, including the millions of products for sale at a given time, some are not happy with the direction the company is headed. Furthermore, they feel that company executives are getting things all wrong.

Carl Icahn of Icahn Enterprises is known for being a billionaire investor. He is also known for being outspoken on a number of subjects, and most recently he took some swings at eBay, with a focus on corporate governance.

In a recent CNBC video segment, here is what Icahn had to say:

“Corporate governance, with exceptions, is completely dysfunctional and I made a great deal of money, and I am glad to hear you say I know something about biotech, I do not a little bit. But I will tell you this: the reason I made the money is not because I am a genius, it is because, it is sort of simplistic. Our companies are so badly run in many cases that all you have to do is really, this sounds simple, but all you have to do is get in there, get involved with these boards, change a lot of the things going on, and you have a much better company, you have assets that will be much more productive for our society.”

From there, Icahn went on to further discuss fixing “some of these companies” and what it means to get them back on the right track.

“From all the ones I have been in, and I have been in a lot, I have never seen worse corporate governance than eBay.”

This is a lot coming from somebody with as much experience as Icahn. He did not stop there, however, adding the following regarding the current state of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY).

“I have never seen somebody like Andreessen. I am not saying he is a bad guy, I blame Donahue more than Andreessen for letting that happen, but he took $4.5 billion. The company sold Skype a year and a half later. They bought it for $2.7 billion and sold it for $8.5 billion. You don’t have to be a genius to understand that there is something wrong.”

Those are strong words from Icahn regarding corporate governance at eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). Do you agree with him? Check out the full segment below:

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