eBay is an online marketplace founded in 1995 that connects buyers and sellers worldwide. It generates over $9 billion in annual revenue and employs around 17,700 people globally. The company's CEO is John Donahoe, who has expanded eBay's core business and overseen strategic acquisitions. eBay allows the sale of almost any item through online auctions and fixed-price listings, competing against Amazon and Craigslist. It has grown significantly since being founded and remains one of the largest online marketplaces.

1. By: Linda Luong and Josh Tullo

2. Ticker symbol EBAY

3. SizeMarket capitalization: 36.68 billion Sales number/ revenue: 9.156 billion Number of employees: approximately 17,700 Global presence: worldwide

4. Founder Founder and Chairman of eBay is named Pierre OmindyarFounded on September 3, 1995

5. CeoJohn DonahoeBecame President and CEO of eBay on March 31, 2008As President and CEO, Donahoe has global responsibility for growing each of the company's business units, which include eBay Marketplaces, and PayPal.In this role, he focused on expanding eBay's core business, which accounts for a large percentage of the company's revenues. Donahoe also oversaw a number of strategic acquisitions, including Shopping.com and StubHub.During the three years he served as President of Marketplaces, revenues and profits for this division doubled

6. Headquarters eBay headquarters reside in San Jose, CA.

7. Primary business eBay is the world’s online marketplaceIt is a place for buyers and sellers to come together and trade almost anything A seller lists an item on eBay, most anything from antiques to cars, books to sporting goods. The seller chooses to accept only bids for the item (an auction-type listing) or to offer the Buy It Now option, which allows buyers to purchase the item right away at a fixed price.In an online auction, the bidding opens at a price the seller specifies and remains on eBay for a certain number of days. Buyers then place bids on the item. When the listing ends, the buyer with the highest bid wins.In a Buy It Now listing, the first buyer willing to pay the seller's price gets the item.

8. Chief competitors Buy it now competitors Amazon Craigslist Auction competitors

9. WebStore

10. OnlineAuction

11. uBidHistory eBay was originally founded in San Jose, CA as AuctionWebOne 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."They officially changed their name to eBay in September 1997 after their growth which hosted 2,000,000 auctions

12. Interesting factseBay Slogans: “Connecting buyers and sellers globally”“What ever it is, you can get it on Ebay”“Buy it, sell it, love it”The most expensive item ever sold on eBay was a 405-foot, steel mega-yacht auctioned by the Fort. Lauderdale. The yacht was offered up for auction on eBay November 3rd, 2006 with a price of $85 million. The price paid your 50% deposit of the full purchase price of $168,000,000.00 total.A 50,000-year-old mammoth was put up for sale in 2004 with a minimum bid set at US $250,000 by his Dutch owner due to lack of space, and sold for $61,000.If eBay employed the people who earn all or most of their income selling on its site, it would be the second-largest employer on the FORTUNE 500, after Wal-Mart.