Here is the answer for anyone who wondered what the true underlying connection was between Whitman and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, and where John Donahoe fits in. The connector is the El Salvador Poma family business empire and a corporate raiding firm.

In 1984, Bain Capital was financed by Ricardo Poma, Salvadoran billionaire. The founding partners were Mitt Romney, T. Coleman Andrews III, and Eric Kriss. Bain Capital was a spinoff of Bain & Company, whose executives included Mitt Romney (CEO), Meg Whitman (8yrs, VP) and John Donahoe (17 yrs, Managing Director). See if you can see eBay parallels in the following:

Bain Capital's business was in venture capital and leveraged buyouts of companies. After increasing value by applying "the Bain Way" Bain would hopefully sell at a profit. The Bain Way, unavoidable in the business of corporate raiding, typically meant slashing jobs, closing plants, moving production overseas. The objective is bottom line return for investors regardless of jobs, local impact, environmental or other considerations, or in some cases even the long term health of the business. Bain Capital made $100 million on the bankrupting Ampad for example. Bain Way for Ampad was the "rolling up" strategy of buying out competitors which was funded by heavy debt and paying millions in fees to Bain. Ampad's revenues were skewered by superstores like Staples, who were funded by Bain by the way. Jobs were lost, businesses shut, shareholders left with worthless paper, creditors left holding the bag, but Bain investors reaped enormous profit.

Meanwhile, Bain & Company - the consulting firm parent company - saw its revenues plummet in the 80's, the senior partners accused of looting the company for retirement featherbedding. Romney, a bright guy, used the Bain Capital methods to take control of Bain Company. Basically a hostile raid of his own parent company, and applied the "Bain Way" in restructuring: layoffs, financial restructuring, replacing his former bosses and partners while deflating the retirement packages.

To me there are fascinating threads and connections with eBay's practices - the Bain Way as learned by Whitman and Donahoe under Romney's tutelage. The above just scratches the surface - in eBay there are broader connections and direct practices of Bain methods that merit exploration.

I haven't had time to delve deeply into the involvement of Salvadoran businessman Ricardo Poma who originally funded Bain Capital. For the basics, the Poma family is one of Central America's oldest and largest family enterprise. They acquired the GM dealership during the Depression, somehow built ALL of the Salvadoran malls, and were chased to Miami by the Salvador Civil War, while somehow keeping their grip on the Salvador businesses. Ricardo Poma is the third generation scion, still sitting on the board of the Bank of Miami and Bain Capital. Something tells me that digging into the history and business would unearth some similarly fascinating information.

I hope that some readers are intrigued enough to indulge in a bit of their own research. If nothing else, those who are mystified by the policies devised and introduced by Whitman and Donahoe have one possible answer: that they are applying the "Bain Way", taught to them by the corporate raider and perhaps influenced by the methods of the Salvadoran tycoon family. If you want to understand eBay's objectives, look at Bain Capital and Mitt Romney.