eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is an American Internet (Consumer-to-consumer) company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries.[3][4] eBay expanded from its original "set-time" auction format to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified advertisements (via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); online money transfers (via PayPal[5]) and other services.

eBay Inc. (eBay), incorporated in May 1996, bring together buyers and sellers every day on a local, national and international basis through a range of Websites. The Company provides online marketplaces for the sale of goods and services, as well as other online commerce, or ecommerce, platforms and online payment solutions to a diverse community of individuals and businesses. The Company operates in two business segments: marketplaces and payments. Its marketplaces segment provides the infrastructure to enable global online commerce on a range of platforms, including the eBay.com platform and its other online platforms, such as its online classifieds businesses, its secondary tickets marketplace (StubHub), its online shopping comparison Website (Shopping.com), its apartment listing service platform (Rent.com) and its fixed price media marketplace (Half.com). Its payments segment consists of its online payment solutions PayPal and Bill Me Later. eBay generates two types of net revenues: net transaction revenues, marketing services and other revenues. Its net transaction revenues are derived from listing fees and final value fees, which are fees payable on transactions completed on its marketplaces trading platforms, and fees paid by merchants for payment processing services. In June 2010, the Company acquired RedLaser, the barcode scanning application for iPhone and related technology from Occipital. In December 2010, the Company acquired Critical Path Software.
Marketplaces
The Company’s marketplaces segment consists of ecommerce platforms that enable a global community of buyers and sellers to interact and trade with one another. Its Marketplaces core platform, eBay.com, includes its fixed-price format and auction-style format and has localized Websites in 38 countries, including those markets, in which it has partners or a minority ownership interest. During the year ended December 31, 2010, its fixed-price listing format accounted for approximately 60% of its gross merchandise value (GMV), and its auction-style format accounted for the remaining 40% of GMV. Its fixed-price format allows buyers and sellers to close transactions in the way shopping occurs at a pre-determined price. In this format, sellers can indicate they have multiple items available, including variations of certain items in applicable categories, such as sizes and colors for clothing, shoes and accessories. In addition, eBay Stores enables sellers to exhibit all of their listings in one place on its eBay platforms and to describe their respective businesses through customized pages.
eBay Stores provide sellers with tools to build, manage, promote and track their businesses. Its auction-style format allows a seller to select a minimum price for opening bids. Additional options and features to auction listings include the ability to set a reserve price, and Buy It Now, which gives a buyer the opportunity to end the auction early by purchasing the item at a pre-determined price specified by the seller. The duration of auctions ranges from one day to 10 days.
The Company’s StubHub is a ticket marketplace, enabling fans to buy and sell tickets to a range of sports, concert, theater and other live entertainment events. StubHub's online marketplace provides fans the choice to buy or sell their tickets. StubHub's partners include the New York Yankees, Washington Redskins and the University of Southern California, along with a total of nearly 60 other teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NCAA, as well as companies, such as ESPN and AOL.
The Company’s classifieds Websites are available in over 1,000 cities globally and are designed to help people trade on a local level. Its classifieds Websites include Den Bla Avis; BilBasen; eBay Classifieds, including eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen and eBay Annunci; Gumtree; Kijiji; LoQUo; Marktplaats.nl, and mobile.de. Its classified Websites generate revenue through advertising. In addition, its craigslist, Inc. operates the craigslist classifieds Websites globally. Shopping.com is a comparison shopping destination featuring products from merchants across the Internet. Shopping.com offers product catalogs on the Internet, searchable by thousands of attributes, along with consumer product reviews through Epinions.com, which helps users make informed buying decisions. Shopping.com’s revenue is derived from retailers who pay a fee for users directed to their sites by Shopping.com. In addition, Shopping.com generates revenue through advertising. Rent.com is a United States listing Website in the rental housing industry. The Website is designed to bring apartment seekers and landlords together in an efficient manner. Landlords pay a fee to Rent.com for renters who indicate that they have found their apartments through Rent.com. Half.com is a fixed-price marketplace for new and used books, textbooks, music, movies, video games and video game consoles. It has mobile applications (apps), for a range of mobile platforms that allow users to access a number of its Marketplace platforms. These include a core eBay application for the iPhone, iPad and Android phones, as well as iPhone apps for its classifieds Websites, StubHub, Half.com, Fashion and Daily Deals. It also maintains a mobile version of its eBay.com Website for use with Internet-enabled phones.
The Company competes with Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Macy's, JC Penney, Costco, Office Depot, Staples, OfficeMax, Sam's Club, Amazon.com, Buy.com, AOL.com, Yahoo!, MSN, QVC, Home Shopping Network, Google, Oodle.com, Schibsted ASA, Nextag.com, Pricegrabber.com, Shopzilla, AE.com, Bluefly.com, Coldwater-Creek.com, Dillard's, DSW, The Gap, J.C. Penney, Kohl's, Land's End, Lane Bryant, LL Bean, Macy's, Nike, Nieman-Marcus, Nordstrom, Old Navy, Overstock.com, Payless, Shoebuy, Shoes.com, Victoria's Secret, Zappos.com, Quelle, Otto, Leboncoin.fr, PriceMinister, Taobao, Naspers, Yahoo-Kimo, Lotte, Naver, 11th Street, Trading Post, OZtion, Aussie Bidder and Play.com.
Payments
The Company’s payments segment is consisted of two online payment brands PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online in approximately 190 markets globally, and Bill Me Later, which enables the United States merchants to offer, and the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for e-commerce transactions through Bill Me Later’s relationship with a chartered financial institution. Its online payment solutions allow customers to send and receive funds and facilitate online credit for merchants and consumers. PayPal enables buyers to pay merchants without sharing sensitive financial information, such as credit card or debit card numbers, or providing their name and address information. The Bill Me Later service allows qualifying the United States buyers to obtain a revolving line of credit from a third party lender at the point of sale (POS). When using Bill Me Later, buyers need to provide only their name, address, birth date and the last four digits of their social security number.
PayPal offers three types of accounts: personal, business and premier. A new account holder typically opens an account to send money for an eBay purchase or a purchase on another Website, a payment for services rendered, or a payment to an individual in lieu of cash or check. PayPal’s account sign-up process asks each new account holder to provide PayPal with his or her name, street address, phone number and e-mail address. The account holder’s e-mail address serves as an account identifier. PayPal also offers certain customers who sell on their own Websites the ability to accept credit, debit or other payment card payments from buyers without requiring the buyer to open a PayPal account. Buyers make payments at the PayPal Website, at the eBay.com Website, or at the Websites of merchants that have integrated PayPal’s Website Payments or Express Checkout features. Buyers can also make payments through PayPal from their mobile device by accessing the Internet directly through their mobile device browser or by using PayPal's, eBay's or other developers' mobile applications. To make a payment at PayPal’s Website, a buyer logs in to his or her account and enters the recipient’s e-mail address and the amount of the payment. To make a payment through eBay.com or merchant Websites, a buyer selects an item for purchase, chooses PayPal for payment and enters his or her e-mail address and password to authorize the payment. The buyer chooses whether PayPal debits the money from the buyer’s PayPal balance, credit, debit or other payment card, Bill Me Later account (in the United States), or bank account, and the payment is then credited to the recipient’s PayPal account balance.
PayPal earns revenues in a range of ways: PayPal earns transaction fees when a Business or Premier account receives a payment or, in certain qualified transactions, when a sender elects to pay the fee in lieu of the recipient; PayPal earns a foreign exchange fee when an account holder converts a balance from one currency to another; PayPal earns fees from merchants who utilize PayPal's Pro direct payment card processing services or Payflow gateway processing services; PayPal earns fees when a user receives payments from outside the user's country of residence; PayPal may earn fees when a user withdraws money to certain bank accounts, depending on the market and the amount of the withdrawal; PayPal earns a return on certain customer balances, and ancillary revenues are earned from related financial products. PayPal incurs funding costs on payments at varying levels depending on the source of the payment.
Bill Me Later offers the United States online consumers a way to obtain instant credit at the point of transaction through its relationship with a chartered financial institution, WebBank, which replaced CIT Bank as the issuer of Bill Me Later credit products. When a consumer makes a purchase using a Bill Me Later credit product issued by a chartered financial institution, the chartered financial institution extends credit to the consumer, funds the extension of credit at the point of sale and advances funds to the merchant. It subsequently purchase the receivables related to the extensions of credit made by the chartered financial institution and, as a result of that purchase, bear the risk of loss in the event of loan defaults. Bill Me Later earns revenues in a range of ways: Bill Me Later earns interest and late payment fees as a result of its purchase of receivables originated by the chartered financial institution, and Bill Me Later earns fees from merchants who use the Bill Me Later service.
The Company competes with American Express, Chase Paymentech, First Data, Wells Fargo, Visa, CyberSource, MoneyGram, Western Union, Global Payments, Inc., Euronet, Fiserv, Acculynk, Moneta, eBillMe, VisaBuxx, NetSpend, GreenDot, Obopay, Amazon, Crandy, LUUP, Payforit, Google, Facebook, Hi5 credits, PlaySpan, Boku, Zong, CashEdge, MasterCard, TrialPay, Tapjoy, Royal Bank of Scotland, World Pay, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, Ukash, NOCHEX, Sofortuberweisung, CertaPay, HyperWallet, Paymate, BPay, POLI, Alipay, YeePay, 99 Bill and Inicis.

The online auction website was founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. One of the first items sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay.
Chris Agarpao was hired as eBay's first employee and Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal; in January 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with 250,000 during the whole of 1996. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com, but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.(Echobay.com is now owned by Echobay Partners, Ltd., a private equity firm based in Nevis.)
In 1997, the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.
Meg Whitman was hired as eBay President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States. eBay went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. eBay's target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.
As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, business grew quickly. In February 2002, the company purchased IBazar, a similar European auction web site founded in 1995 and then bought PayPal on October 14, 2002.
In early 2008, the company had expanded worldwide, counted hundreds of millions of registered users, 15,000+ employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion. After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman made the decision to enter politics. On January 23, 2008 the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008 and John Donahoe was selected to become President and CEO. Whitman remained on the Board of Directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009, eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company.
In July 2010, eBay was sued for $3.8 billion by XPRT Ventures that accused eBay of stealing information shared in confidence by the inventors on XPRT's own patents, and incorporated it into features in its own payment systems, such as PayPal Pay Later and PayPal Buyer Credit.


OVERALL
Beta: 1.57
Market Cap (Mil.): $43,531.53
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 1,297.90
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
EBAY.OQ Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 23.66 20.57 19.08
EPS (TTM): -23.08 -- --
ROI: 11.27 21.49 16.11
ROE: 12.50 23.55 17.77

Name Age Since Current Position
Omidyar, Pierre 43 1998 Chairman of the Board
Donahoe, John 50 2010 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director and Interim President of eBay Marketplaces
Swan, Robert 50 2006 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President - Finance
Thompson, Scott 53 2008 President - PayPal
Carges, Mark 49 2009 Senior Vice President - Global Products, Marketplaces, Chief Technology Officer
Jacobson, Michael 56 Senior Vice President - Legal Affairs, General Counsel, Secretary
Axelrod, Elizabeth 48 2005 Senior Vice President - Human Resources
Marks, Alan 48 2008 Senior Vice President - Corporate Communications
Barnholt, Edward 67 2010 Lead Independent Director
Cook, Scott 58 1998 Independent Director
Lepore, Dawn 57 1999 Independent Director
Tierney, Thomas 57 2003 Independent Director
Anderson, Fred 66 2003 Independent Director
Schlosberg, Richard 66 2004 Independent Director
Ford, William 53 2005 Independent Director
Moffett, David 58 2007 Independent Director
Andreessen, Marc 39 2008 Independent Director

COMPANY ADDRESS
eBay Inc
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose CA 95125
 
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