Who Owns eBay: The Largest Shareholders Overview
eBay Inc. (EBAY) is an auction-style e-commerce platform that focuses both on consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales. It makes money by charging fees to sellers. Let’s look at who owns eBay and who controls it.
eBay’s largest shareholders are large asset managers. Vanguard owns 11.3% of the company, and BlackRock owns an 8.5% share. A sizable stake also belongs to eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar, who owns around 4.3% of eBay.
 eBay's Largest Shareholders (Dec 2022)
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| Shareholder | Ownership | Voting Power | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Vanguard | 11.3% | 11.3% |
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BlackRock | 8.5% | 8.5% |
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Pierre Omidyar | 4.3% | 4.3% |
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Other | 75.9% | 75.9% |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | |||
 Source: Multiple SEC filings |
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In this article, I will dive more into who owns eBay and who controls it. I will show you who eBay’s largest shareholders are, how many shares and votes they have, and how much their stake is worth.
If you are interested, you can also explore my other articles about who owns companies like Microsoft, Alphabet(Google), Lenovo, IBM, Tencent, and others.
📃 Who Owns eBay?
eBay is owned mainly by asset managers. The largest ones are asset manager giant Vanguard, which owns 11.3% of the company, followed by asset manager giant BlackRock with 8.5% ownership share.
- It is not surprising to see Vanguard and BlackRock among the top shareholders. They are the largest asset managers worldwide, and it is common to see them among the top shareholders of large public companies.
Founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, also probably owns a sizable stake in the Company and is its largest individual shareholder.
- I say probably because, since 2020, when Pierre Omidyar left eBay’s board of directors, he is no longer required to disclose his stake.
- His latest regulatory filing, where he disclosed his stake, is from 2020. Assuming he did not sell any stocks, his stake today would be 4.3%.
eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and has been a publicly listed company since its initial public offering on Nasdaq in 1998 (Ticker: EBAY).
- After the IPO, the largest shareholder was Pierre Omidyar, with 38% ownership, and Jeffrey Skoll, the first eBay president, with a 26% stake.
eBay Inc. is incorporated in the State of Delaware (US), and its headquarters are in San Jose, California (US).
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🎮 Who Controls eBay (EBAY)?
eBay’s shareholders with the largest voting power are asset manager giant Vanguard, which holds 11.3% of all votes, followed by asset manager giant BlackRock with 8.5% voting power. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar controls 4.3% of the votes.
eBay has only one class of outstanding shares, with one vote per share. Therefore, there is no difference between the shareholder’s ownership and voting power.
The ownership of eBay Inc. is quite dispersed, and the main shareholders are asset managers investing money on behalf of their clients. None of them control the company individually, but together they have a big influence.
eBay’s dispersed ownership creates conflicts of interest between eBay’s management, asset manager’s management, and the ultimate underlying investors that asset managers represent. In situations like these, insiders of the large asset manager shareholders and insiders of the company hold significant power over it.
eBay’s insiders that have influence over the company are CEO Jamie Iannone, chairman of the board Paul Pressler, and other board members and executives.
- eBay’s board has nine members who are reelected annually. Up to 2012, eBay had a classified board with three classes of directors with a 3-year term.
- Nobody from the board of directors or executive officers holds more than 0.05% of eBay’s shares.
Company founder Pierre Omidyar still probably holds a sizable stake in the Company, which would partially balance the power insiders would otherwise have.
- However, even though it is assumed that he still owns 4% of the Company, this information is from 2020, when he left the board. Sometimes founders leave the board before they sell a large part of their stake to avoid negative publicity this would mean for eBay.
🗳️ Breakdown of eBay’s Outstanding Shares and Votes by Top Shareholders
eBay Inc. had a total of 539 million outstanding shares as of December 2022. The following table shows how many shares each eBay’s large shareholder holds.
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eBay's Outstanding Shares by Shareholder
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| In millions of shares as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Vanguard | 61 | 61 | 11.3% |
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BlackRock | 46 | 46 | 8.5% |
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Pierre Omidyar | 23 | 23 | 4.3% |
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Other | 409 | 409 | 75.9% |
| Total (# millions) | 539 | 539 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Multiple SEC filings |
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There were 539 million votes distributed among shareholders of eBay Inc.. The table below shows the total number of votes for each large shareholder.
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eBay's Vote Control by Shareholder
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| In millions of votes as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Vanguard | 61 | 61 | 11.3% |
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BlackRock | 46 | 46 | 8.5% |
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Pierre Omidyar | 23 | 23 | 4.3% |
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Other | 409 | 409 | 75.9% |
| Total (# millions) | 539 | 539 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Multiple SEC filings |
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💵 Breakdown of eBay’s Market Value by Shareholder
The following table summarizes how much is each shareholder’s stake in eBay Inc. worth.
However, keep in mind that a stake in eBay could be just one part of their portfolio, and their total worth could be bigger, thanks to other investments. It could also be lower if they have debts.
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eBay's Market Value by Shareholder
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| Market value in billions $ as of December 2022 | ||||
| Shareholder | Class A | Total | % Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Vanguard | $2.5 | $2.5 | 11.3% |
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BlackRock | $1.9 | $1.9 | 8.5% |
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Pierre Omidyar | $1.0 | $1.0 | 4.3% |
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Other | $17.0 | $17.0 | 75.9% |
| Total ($ billions) | $22.4 | $22.4 | 100.0% | |
| Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways | ||||
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Source: Multiple SEC filings |
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Let’s now look at each eBay shareholder individually.
📒 Who Are eBay’s Largest Shareholders?
Let’s now go through the list of the largest shareholders of eBay Inc. one by one and look at who they are, how many shares they own, what is their voting power, and how much is their stake in eBay worth.
#1 Vanguard (11.3%)
Vanguard is the largest shareholder of eBay, owning 11.3% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of Vanguard’s stake in eBay was $2.5 billion.
Vanguard owned 61 million shares in eBay and controlled 61 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Vanguard (The Vanguard Group) is one of the largest asset managers in the world. It manages other people’s money through its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds and also offers other related investing and financial planning services.
Vanguard differs from other large asset managers by having no actual “owner .” Officially Vanguard says that its investors own it since its funds own it, and Vanguard fund investors own those funds.
However, the actual decision power is in the hands of Vanguard’s insiders since the ownership is diluted over millions of investors worldwide.
Vanguard has significant influence over the largest public companies. Thanks to its size, Vanguard usually belongs to the largest shareholders in those companies and has considerable power at their shareholder meetings. This is especially true if ownership is diluted.
- Several terms were coined to describe this issue. Some call it asset manager capitalism, and popular is also the power of twelve. Financial Times even put together who exactly those twelve people might be.
- Evidence shows that big asset managers usually vote together with management.
#2 BlackRock (8.5%)
BlackRock is the second-largest shareholder of eBay, owning 8.5% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of BlackRock’s stake in eBay was $1.9 billion.
BlackRock owned 46 million shares in eBay and controlled 46 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
BlackRock, Inc. is the world’s largest asset manager, with assets under management of $10 trillion. BlackRock is not only an asset manager, but it also provides other asset managers and corporations with its Aladdin portfolio management software.
BlackRock is a publicly traded company, and its largest shareholders are its competitors, including BlackRock itself. Not directly but through their passive and active funds. The largest shareholder is Vanguard.
A similar situation is also true in the opposite direction because BlackRock is a significant shareholder in many of its publicly traded competitors and other large institutions, making the whole thing even more eyebrow-raising.
This circular ownership between Vanguard, BlackRock, and other large asset managers, amplifies the issue often raised about the power of these large asset managers over public companies since they usually belong to the most significant shareholders with large voting power.
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In the case of Blackrock, this influence is personified in the form of its CEO Larry Fink, who is a powerful figure with close ties to the FED and the US government.
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Adding to these concerns is evidence that BlackRock and other asset managers usually vote in favor of management proposals.
#3 Pierre Omidyar (4.3%)
Pierre Omidyar is the third-largest shareholder of eBay, owning 4.3% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of Pierre Omidyar’s stake in eBay was $1.0 billion.
Pierre Omidyar owned 23 million shares in eBay and controlled 23 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.
Pierre Morad Omidyar is the founder and former chairman and board member of eBay Inc. Omidyar was a software developer and already had experience with another startup before he founded eBay in 1995. He was eBay’s chairman between 1996 and 2015 and a member of the board until 2020.
Omidyar did not become funder-CEO and instead hired Jeffrey Skoll early on as the company’s first president.
❔ Does Pierre Omidyar Still Own eBay?
It is highly probable that eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar still owns a sizable stake in eBay. He is not required to disclose his stake anymore. His stake might be 4%, assuming that he still holds the same amount of shares he disclosed in his last regulatory filing from 2020.
Even if he sold part of his stake, he probably still is the largest individual shareholder of eBay.
🧱 Who and When Founded eBay
eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a french-born iranian-american in 1995. The company was initially called AuctionWeb and only later renamed eBay. The site was used heavily for trading collectible items.
A key personality of eBay early on was also Jeffrey Skoll, hired in 1996 by Omidyar as the company’s first president. He remained president until the arrival of CEO Meg Whitman in 1998 and then became vice president.
eBay went public on Nasdaq in 1998. The largest shareholders right after the IPO were:
- Pierrre Omidyar: 38.3%
- Jeffrey Skoll: 25.7%
- Benchmark Funds: 22.1%
- Margaret Whitman (new CEO): 6%
📅 eBay’s History Timeline
These are selected events from eBay’s history:
- 1995: Pierre Omidyar founded AuctionWeb at the age of 28. The site allowed direct person-to-person actions and was heavily used for trading collectible items.
- 1996: Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the Company
- 1998: Meg Whitman was hired by the board as eBay’s president and CEO. Jeffrey Skoll became vice president.
- 1997: Name changed from AuctionWeb to eBay
- 1998: Founder Pierre Omidyar becomes the chairman of the board.
- 1998: eBay’s Initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. (Ticker: EBAY)
- 1998: Introduction of the “Buy It Now” button.
- 2002: Acquisition of PayPal for $1.4bn
- 2004: eBay acquires 28.4% of Craigslist
- 2005: eBay acquires Skype Technologies SA for $2.6bn
- 2007: eBay acquires StubHub
- 2008: Meg Whitman stepped down as CEO, and John Donahoe became president and CEO.
- 2009: eBay sold majority of Skype
- 2011: Sale of remaining Skype stake to Microsoft
- 2014: Spinoff of Paypal was announced
- 2015: eBay sells its stake in Craiglist, ending “rocky” relationship
- 2015: Spinoff of Paypal into a separate company
- 2015: Founder Pierre Omidyar stepped down as chairman but stayed on the board
- 2015: Strategic partnership with Flipkart announced
- 2018: eBay replaced PayPal as its primary payments provider with Netherland-based startup Adyen. Paypal was still kept as a payment option.
- 2020: StubHub sold to Viagogo
- 2020: New CEO Jamie Iannone
- 2020: eBay announced selling Kijiji online classified advertising website to Adevinta
- 2020: Founder Pierre Omidyar left the company’s board of directors
📚 Recommended Articles & Other Resources
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Other Resources
- eBay’s Annual Financials Statements (K-10)
- eBay’s Proxy Statement
- eBay’s Certificate of Incorporation
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