Online marketplace eBay (EBAY 2.41%) was an early internet success story. Almost 30 years after going public, eBay generates $10 billion in revenue annually. Let's explore how eBay got its start, who owns the company, and how you can add this global business to your investment portfolio.
Who owns it?
Who is the owner of eBay?
eBay is a public company, owned by institutional, insider, and retail investors. Nearly 95% of eBay stock is owned by about 1,400 institutional investors. Company officers and directors collectively own less than 1% of the online marketplace.
eBay went public in 1998 on the Nasdaq exchange, with an expected share price of $18. Eager investors bid up the price to $53.50 on the first day of trading. If you had invested $10,000 in eBay in 1998, your position would be worth $700,911 today.
Pierre Omidyar founded eBay in 1995 under the name AuctionWeb. The first item he listed for sale was a broken laser printer he sold to Canadian Mark Fraser for $14.83. In the next year, AuctionWeb would facilitate $7.2 million in merchandise transactions.
Also in 1996, AuctionWeb brought on Jeff Skoll as president and opened an office in San Jose, California. The company officially changed its name to eBay in 1997. The leadership team expanded again in 1998 with the hiring of now-famous tech CEO Meg Whitman.
In the ensuing years, eBay would evolve through expansions, acquisitions, partnerships, divestitures, and spin-offs to become the company it is today. Significant milestones included:
- Acquisition of peer-to-peer trading site Up4Sale in 1998
- Expansion into Germany, Australia, and the U.K. in 1999
- Launch of the "Buy it Now" feature in 2000
- Acquisition of PayPal (PYPL 0.48%) in 2002
- Acquisition of Rent.com in 2004
- Acquisition of Skype in 2005
- Acquisition of StubHub in 2007
- Acquisition of BillMeLater in 2008
- Sale of 70% of Skype ownership in 2009
- Acquisition of Milo.com in 2010
- Sale of Rent.com in 2012
- Partnership with Sotheby's to sell fine art in 2014
- Spin-off of PayPal as a separate public company in 2015
- Sale of eBay Enterprise, which provided various e-commerce support services to brick-and-mortar businesses
- Partnership with Bigcommerce to streamline the product listing process for Bigcommerce merchants
- Acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics company Expertmaker in 2016
- Sale of StubHub in 2020
- Launch of non-fungible token (NFT) sales in 2021
- Acquisition of NFT marketplace KnownOrigin in 2022
- Acquisition of digital authentication tech company Certilogo in 2023
Today, eBay serves 132 million buyers and facilitates some $18 billion in merchandise sales every quarter.
Largest shareholders
Who are the largest shareholders?
eBay's largest shareholders are institutional asset managers who primarily hold the stock within their mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The top five institutional shareholders of eBay are below.
Shareholder
Institutional investors
Note that the position values assume a share price of $53. The ownership percentages are derived from 507.4 million outstanding shares, which was accurate as of April 15, 2024, according to June 2024 filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- Vanguard Group: Vanguard owns 58 million eBay shares, which have a total value of about $3 billion and account for 11.51% of the company. Vanguard is an investment management company that specializes in low-cost funds that cover popular market segments, like the S&P 500. The fund manager offers eBay exposure within its Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI -0.12%), Vanguard 500 Index Fund (NASDAQMUTFUND:FVINX), Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund (VIMSX 0.92%), and others.
- BlackRock (NYSE:BLK): BlackRock holds more than 43 million eBay shares. Its position is worth about $2.3 billion and represents an 8.65% ownership stake. BlackRock is a large investment manager that operates the iShares family of ETFs and other funds. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV -0.13%) owns about 5.2 million shares of eBay stock.
- State Street (NYSE:STT): State Street Corporation's eBay share count totals 23 million and is valued at $1.2 billion. That share count is 4.58% of eBay's outstanding stock. State Street is a global asset manager and bank holding company and the parent of State Street Global Advisors, which operates the SPDR family of ETFs. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY -0.16%) portfolio includes about 6 million shares of eBay.
- Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP): Ameriprise owns 22 million eBay shares, or 4.35% of the company, with a market value of about $1.1 billion. Ameriprise is a Minnesota-based financial planning and services company.
- Geode Capital Management: Geode Capital Management owns 14 million shares of eBay. This is 2.76% of the company, worth about $743 million. Geode manages index funds for its parent company Fidelity and portfolios for institutional investors.
Individual/insider shareholders
eBay's largest individual shareholders are company officers. While some of the officer's positions are quite valuable, none account for more than 0.20% of eBay's outstanding shares. The top five insider shareholders are:
- Jamie Iannone: Iannone is eBay's president and CEO. He is the former chief operating officer (COO) of Walmart (WMT -0.72%) e-commerce and CEO of Samsclub.com. Iannone also worked at eBay between 2001 and 2009. He owns 801,450 eBay shares, which is the largest reported position owned by an individual insider. The position accounts for about 0.16% of the company's outstanding shares and is worth $42 million.
- Steve Priest: Priest is eBay's senior vice president and CFO. He previously served as CFO for JetBlue (JBLU 1.87%) and held senior leadership roles at British Airways (LSE:BAY.L). Priest owns 188,131 eBay shares, which is less than 0.05% but worth almost $10 million.
- Julie Loeger: Loeger is senior vice president and chief growth officer for eBay. Loeger's resume includes senior leadership roles at Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) and a tenure in marketing at Anheuser Busch (BUD 1.2%). Loeger's eBay portfolio totals 153,214 shares and is valued at a little more than $8 million.
- Cornelius Boone: Boone's title at eBay is senior vice president, chief people officer. Prior to joining eBay, Boone held a similar role at American Airlines (AAL 2.5%). He has also worked for Walmart and employment law firm Littler Mendelson. Boone's eBay portfolio is worth about $6.7 million based on a share count of 126,872.
- Eddie Garcia: Garcia holds the role of senior vice president and chief product officer at eBay. He joined eBay for the second time in 2022 after working for Meta Platforms (META 1.02%) as the head of commerce for the Facebook mobile app. Prior to his Meta tenure, Garcia held various leadership roles at eBay between 2003 and 2014. Garcia owns 123,983 eBay shares worth $6.5 million.
Board of directors
Who is on the board of directors for eBay?
eBay's board of directors has 10 members:
Board of Directors
- Jamie Iannone: Iannone joined eBay's board in 2020, stepping in as the company's president and CEO.
- Perry Traquina: Traquina has been an eBay board member since 2015. He formerly worked for investment management firm Wellington Management Company LLP for more than three decades and retired from Wellington in 2014 as chairman, CEO, and managing partner. Traquina holds 71,224 shares of eBay, a position worth about $3.7 million.
- Paul Pressler: Pressler has been a director for eBay since 2015. He currently chairs the board and the corporate governance and nominating committee. Pressler also serves as operating advisor for equity investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC. He formerly chaired the board for David's Bridal and Wilsonart International Holdings, among others. Pressler was also president and CEO of clothing retailer The Gap (GAP -0.65%) and held senior roles at Disney (DIS 0.04%). Pressler owns 76,957 eBay shares worth about $4 million.
- Logan Green: Green joined eBay's board of directors in 2016. He founded Zimride, the predecessor to ride-sharing company Lyft (LYFT 9.51%). Green is also Lyft's former CEO and current chairman. Green's eBay share count totals 36,922. This position is worth almost $2 million.
- Adriane Brown: Brown joined eBay's board in 2017. She currently chairs the compensation and human capital committee and is a managing partner at venture capital firm Flying Fish Partners. Brown has also worked for Honeywell Transportation Systems and Corning (GLW -0.71%). Brown's eBay portfolio totals 29,645 shares worth about $1.5 million.
- E. Carol Hayles: Hayles joined the eBay board in 2020 and currently chairs the company's audit committee. She was formerly executive vice president and CFO for financial services company CIT Group. She also served Citigroup (C -1.49%) for 24 years, ending her tenure there as deputy controller. Hayles owns 13,006 eBay shares, collectively worth about $689,000.
- Mohak Shroff: Shroff was elected to eBay's board in 2020. He has spent much of his professional career at the social networking site Linkedin, where he currently serves as senior vice president of engineering. Shroff's eBay position totals 12,933 shares and is worth about $685,000.
- Aparna Chennapragada: Chennapragada has served on eBay's board since 2022. She is also the corporative vice president of generative AI at Microsoft (MSFT 0.44%). Previously, Chennapragada was chief product officer for Robinhood (HOOD 1.43%) and vice president and general manager at Alphabet's (GOOG 1.61%)(GOOGL 1.57%) Google. She owns 4,224 eBay shares, which are worth $223,703.
- Shripriya Mahesh: Mahesh became a director for eBay in 2023 and serves on the company's Risk Committee. She is the co-founder and a general partner at venture capital firm Spero Ventures and was a partner at Omidyar Network, which invests in emerging technology companies. Prior to her work in venture capital, Mahesh held multiple leadership roles at eBay. She holds 1,234 eBay shares, valued at $65,353.
- Zane Rowe: Rowe joined eBay's board in 2024. His resume includes several executive leadership roles, including CFO of enterprise software provider Workday (WDAY 1.7%) and executive vice president and CFO of technology company VMware. Rowe does not own any eBay shares.
How to invest
How to invest in eBay
You can invest in eBay by purchasing the company's shares directly. You can also invest in a general or e-commerce fund that holds eBay stock. To determine which approach suits you, consider your volatility tolerance and how much time you want to spend managing your portfolio.
Volatility tolerance: Mutual funds and ETFs that hold many positions are often less volatile than individual stocks because the varying movements of stocks within the fund can offset each other, creating a smoother path overall.
If you prefer to own eBay individually, you can lessen the volatility risk by holding it with 20 or so other individual stocks. Spreading out your exposure to different industries and company sizes can maximize your protection.
Related investing topics
Time available to manage portfolio: A portfolio of stocks can be more time-consuming to manage than a portfolio of funds. Individual stocks require closer oversight due to the volatility risk. You may also need to rebalance individual stocks more often because they grow at different rates. Higher growth in one position can leave you with excessive exposure to that stock, which may not fit your investing plan.
A brokerage account allows you to purchase eBay shares or a fund with eBay exposure. Many individual retirement accounts (IRAs) also allow for stock and fund purchases.
FAQ
Who owns eBay FAQ
Does China own eBay?
China does not own eBay. The company is publicly owned, primarily by U.S.-based institutional shareholders.
What company is eBay owned by?
eBay is a public company owned by its shareholders. Its largest shareholder is asset manager Vanguard, which owns 11.51% of outstanding eBay shares.
Who is the parent company of eBay?
eBay does not have a parent company. The online marketplace is owned by its shareholders.
Who is the largest shareholder of eBay?
Asset manager Vanguard Group is eBay's largest shareholder. Vanguard owns 11.51% of eBay, with large positions in several funds, including the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund.
