eBay

In September 1995, Pierre Omidyar founded eBay as a sole proprietorship, building an online person-to-person trading community; the company was incorporated in California in May 1996 and reincorporated in Delaware in April 1998. Omidyar served as Chairman of the Board from incorporation, and in the early years also served as Chief Executive Officer (until February 1998), Chief Financial Officer, and President. Before founding eBay, he was a developer services engineer at the mobile communications platform company General Magic; earlier, he co-founded Ink Development Corp. He holds a degree in computer science from Tufts University.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

In February 1998, Margaret C. Whitman (Meg Whitman), who had been General Manager of the Preschool Division of Hasbro and Chief Executive Officer of FTD and had worked at companies including Stride Rite and Walt Disney, became President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay, joining the board in March.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On September 24, 1998, eBay offered 3.5 million shares of common stock to the public at $18 per share, of which 3,489,275 shares were sold by the company, for quotation on the Nasdaq National Market, with the underwriters led by Goldman, Sachs & Co. As of August 31, 1998, the platform had over 1 million registered users and over 600,000 simultaneous auctions listed in 1,085 categories; in the second quarter of 1998, the “Beanie Babies” category at times had over 30,000 simultaneous auctions.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

On October 3, 2002, eBay completed its acquisition of PayPalPayPalPayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL) is an American digital payments company that operates payment brands including PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, and Xoom, providing online and in-store payments, money transfers, and consumer credit to consumers and merchants worldwide.Open the full entry, an online payments company headquartered in Mountain View, California, in a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction, aiming to eliminate the obstacles that traditional payment methods such as checks, money orders, and credit cards posed to online trading; at the time, PayPal could send and receive payments in 38 countries.⁠[2][2][2][2]

On October 14, 2005, eBay acquired the internet telephony company Skype Technologies S.A. for a total initial consideration of approximately $2.6 billion, and set up a Communications segment for the business.⁠[3][3]

In January 2008, eBay announced that Meg Whitman would step down as president and chief executive officer on March 31 and would be succeeded by John Donahoe, who had been named by the board of directors.⁠[4]

On November 19, 2009, eBay completed the sale of Skype to an investor group, receiving approximately $1.9 billion in cash, a $125 million subordinated note issued by a subsidiary of the buyer, and an equity stake of approximately 30% in the buyer. Thereafter, eBay mainly operated two business segments: Marketplaces and Payments.⁠[5][5][5]

On September 30, 2014, following a strategic review, eBay’s board of directors approved a plan to separate PayPal into an independent publicly traded company. On July 17, 2015, eBay distributed all of PayPal’s outstanding common stock to its stockholders, and PayPal became an independent company. At the same time, Devin Wenig became President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay, Pierre Omidyar resigned as Chairman while remaining a director, Thomas Tierney became Non-executive Chairman, and John Donahoe and others resigned as directors of eBay.⁠[6][6][7][7][7]

On September 24, 2019, Devin Wenig stepped down as President, Chief Executive Officer, and director of eBay, and Chief Financial Officer Scott Schenkel became interim Chief Executive Officer.⁠[8][8]

On February 13, 2020, eBay completed the sale of the ticketing platform StubHub to an affiliate of viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash; the deal had been signed on November 24, 2019.⁠[9][9]

On April 27, 2020, Jamie Iannone became President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay and joined the board. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Walmart eCommerce, had served as CEO of SamsClub.com and Executive Vice President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble, and had spent nearly eight years at eBay. In July of that year, eBay’s operating agreement with PayPal expired, and eBay continued to expand its own “managed payments” service globally.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][9]

On July 20, 2020, eBay agreed to transfer its Classifieds business to Norway’s Adevinta. The transaction closed on June 24, 2021, with eBay receiving $2.5 billion in cash and approximately 540 million Adevinta shares, representing a 44% equity interest. On November 18 of that year, eBay sold approximately 135 million Adevinta shares to an affiliate of Permira for approximately $2.3 billion, reducing its stake to 33%.⁠[9][11][11][11]

On November 14, 2021, eBay completed the sale of an 80.01% stake in eBay Korea to E-mart for approximately $3 billion.⁠[11]

In 2022, eBay acquired TCGplayer, a marketplace for collectible card games.⁠[12][12]

On January 31, 2024, eBay reached a settlement with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice, paying $59 million to resolve the Department of Justice’s allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act, and agreeing to strengthen its monitoring and reporting of listings that violate its policies. In the same month, eBay entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts over the 2019 stalking and harassment by employees of the editor and publisher of the e-commerce news site EcommerceBytes: the prosecutors filed six criminal counts and agreed to defer prosecution, and eBay paid a $3 million penalty and became subject to an independent compliance monitor for a three-year term; six former employees and one former contractor had pleaded guilty in connection with the conduct.⁠[13][13][13][13][13][13][13][13]

The US government had sued eBay, alleging that third-party sellers on its platform sold products in violation of the Clean Air Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act in ways designed to evade detection, and seeking to hold eBay responsible. On September 30, 2024, the federal district court dismissed the government’s claims in their entirety. In the same year, eBay acquired Goldin, an auction house for high-value trading cards and collectibles, and sold its holdings in Adevinta, Adyen, Gmarket, and others.⁠[13][13][12][13]

In 2025, eBay acquired Caramel, a provider of online automotive transaction services, and Tise, a consumer-to-consumer social marketplace headquartered in Oslo.⁠[13][13]

According to its annual report for fiscal 2025, filed on February 19, 2026, eBay’s 2025 revenue was $11.1 billion (marketplace revenues of $9.107 billion and advertising revenues of $1.993 billion), and its net income was $2.031 billion; at the end of the year, the platform had 2.5 billion live listings, and the company had approximately 12,300 employees, of whom approximately 7,200 were in the United States. In the same month, eBay signed an agreement to acquire Depop, a consumer-to-consumer fashion marketplace focused on Gen Z and Millennial customers, for approximately $1.2 billion in cash.⁠[13][13][13][13][13]

On May 3, 2026, GameStop delivered a non-binding proposal to eBay’s board to acquire all of eBay’s common stock at $125 per share, half in cash and half in GameStop stock, representing a 46% premium to eBay’s unaffected closing price; the cash-and-stock proposal was valued at about $56 billion in total. On May 4, eBay confirmed receipt of the unsolicited proposal and said it had had no prior contact with GameStop.⁠[14][15][16]

On May 12, eBay Chairman Paul S. Pressler wrote to GameStop Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cohen announcing that the board had rejected the proposal, considering it “neither credible nor attractive,” with the factors considered including eBay’s standalone prospects, the uncertainty of the financing proposal, the impact on long-term growth and profitability, the leverage, operational risks, and leadership structure of the combined company, and GameStop’s governance and executive incentives.⁠[17][17][17][17][17][17]

At GameStop’s annual meeting on July 7, 2026, GameStop said it had continued to build its stake in eBay and remained committed to pursuing a transaction; the CEO performance award designed for Cohen, which eBay’s board had criticized, had been withdrawn before the meeting. When GameStop filed a 13D/A on July 17, it held approximately 9.8% of eBay’s outstanding common stock.⁠[14][14][15][18]

On July 30, 2026, eBay completed its acquisition of Depop, paying approximately $1.4 billion in cash, including preliminary purchase price adjustments. In the second quarter of 2026, eBay’s revenue was $3.1 billion and its gross merchandise volume was $22.4 billion, both up 15% year over year, and the gross merchandise volume of its live shopping business eBay Live grew roughly eightfold year over year.⁠[19][20][20][20]

eBay is a third-party marketplace that does not itself hold inventory; its revenue comes mainly from fees on paid transactions, first-party advertising, and shipping services, and depends on its take rate on gross merchandise volume. The platform carries both new and used goods, and the company says recommerce has been part of its purpose since its founding in 1995. In recent years, the company has concentrated resources on “Focus Categories” such as motor vehicle parts and accessories, collectibles, refurbished items, apparel, luxury goods, and sneakers, and has introduced AI-assisted listings and live shopping.⁠[1][13][13][13][13][13]

eBay: Official website: https://www.ebay.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

eBay Inc.: Official website: https://www.ebayinc.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[16]