eBay CEO Meg Whitman could announce plans to retire as soon as today's earnings call. The most likely candidate to replace her? Consensus suggests auctions chief John Donahoe. But how'd that happen? A quick look at other viable contenders shows Donahoe's candidacy owes much to the process of elimination. Here's how the discarded contenders stack up.

The brain drain at eBay continues, ChannelAdvisor's Scot Wingo speculates. The plugged-in CEO of the Raleigh-area e-commerce company, a close partner to eBay, has heard that eBay executive Lorrie Norrington is jumping ship. Her rumored destination? Yahoo. Norrington, who currently runs eBay's international marketplaces, is a brilliant careerist: Having leapt from GE to Intuit to eBay, Yahoo would be her fourth employer in less than six years. If Norrington is really going to Yahoo, then perhaps that speaks well, for a change, for that company's prospects. But her departure would leave yet another hole in eBay's management team, since Bill Cobb, her U.S. counterpart, is out on sabbatical. Update: An eBay contact tells Wingo its "categorically not true." But sources at Yahoo strongly believe talks are underway with Norrington. Anyone know more?