Note: This page will be updated periodically. For current information, please refer to eBay's financial profile.
eBay is the one of the world's premier online properties and the corporate home of a number of successful Internet brands. With over 300 million registered users, eBay's core site hosts millions of retail and wholesale transactions in some 30 countries encompassing tens of millions of transactions every day. eBay operates the online market's leading VOIP network (Skype, with over 405 million registered users) and payment system (PayPal, with over 200 million registered users). eBay was founded in 1995 by a 28-year-old Internet entrepreneur named Pierre Omidyar and is today headed by President and CEO John Donahoe, who took over from former President and CEO Meg Whitman in March of 2008. Taken public in 1998, eBay's market capitalization is approximately $15 billion. During the first three quarters of 2008, eBay's marketplace trading volume was some $46 billion in transactions.
eBay Today
eBay's position continues to change as online retail evolves. eBay's 1998 IPO occurred during the fabled "dot com bubble" and was influenced by many of the forces that made other technology and Internet IPOs so (in)famous. eBay's initial $18 target price gave way to a steady climb, reaching a high of just over $58 per share in 2004 before embarking on a steady decline. eBay's revenue growth was initially 30 percent or more year over year, making eBay one of the breakout winners of the dot com race.In recent quarters, however, year over year growth has slowed, with an increasing proportion of overall growth coming from non-core businesses. Some of this decline is due to increasing competition from competitors, including Amazon.com Marketplace, Google, and Yahoo. Recent economic conditions have also taken a toll, with revenue, profit, and listing volume all falling during the last part of 2008.
Though John Donahoe has sought to continue Whitman's strategy to strengthen eBay's core auction business while at the same time diversifying eBay's offerings, a number of strategic moves as of late have been controversial, meeting with mixed reviews. Recent changes in rules and fees and an increased emphasis on fixed-price sales selling have alienated some portions of eBay's selling community even as eBay's competition grows. In October, eBay announced a round of layoffs, cutting 10 percent of its approximately 16,000-strong workforce worldwide, incurring restructuring expenses of 70 to 80 million dollars during the fourth quarter.
eBay's holdings and partnerships continue to influence eBay's trajectory for better and for worse, amongst a number of well-known brands and companies: (holdings including) StubHub, Shopping.com, Half.com, ProStores, Rent.com, Kijiji, Gumtree.com, and others; (partnerships including) Skype, MercadoLibre, Craigslist, ChannelAdvisor, and others.
