Ebay: It’s amazing what you can find

Is Meg Whitman the Barry Diller of Silicon Valley? Like the acquisitive IAC boss, Whitman also seems to like shopping for companies. She’s added telecoms, payment services, tickets and other booths to her Internet bazaar. Yet investors aren’t sure these assets belong together. Perhaps Whitman should copy Diller’s recent decision to break up his empire into more nimble parts. Take Ebay’s core auction business. There are few comparable companies, but Amazon and Yahoo are close enough – on average...