E Commerce Powerhouse Ebay Is Known Internationally As A...

E-Commerce powerhouse Ebay is known internationally as a leader in the market. The company was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 in San Francisco Originally eBay went by the name Auction Web and was launched with the purpose of enabling site users/consumers with the ability to trade unique items with each other. Under eBay’s business model, of the time a seller would place an item on eBay’s site with a minimum bid set for the buyer and the duration specified for auctioning that item. The services were provided by eBay free of charge. The free services however, did not last long as the site quickly gained popularity and garnered a lot of web traffic. As interest in eBay and conducting business on the site began to grow eBay started†¦show more content†¦eBay, thereby had become one of the most visited sites on the web. With the company growing at an exponential rate Skoll and Omidyar knew that they need to garner venture capital. So, in 1997, Omidyar and Skoll approached the U.S venture capital firm Benchmark. They were able to broker a deal and Benchmark endowed eBay with $ 5 million with the stipulation that Benchmark be given a 22 percent stake in the company. With the help of Benchmark Omidyar and Skoll were able to bring onboard David Beirne and Robert Kagle to service operations, as well as Meg Whitman an MBA Harvard graduate as CEO for the company. As CEO of the Company, Whitman spearheaded the eBay Initial Public Offering (IPO) where the company sold over 4 million shares of the business to the public at $18 per share. With new found revenue and continued success, eBay decided to expand the scope of its business and acquired Butterfield Butterfield. Butterfield Butterfield is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious auction houses specializing in fine arts and irreplaceable collectables. Acquisition of Butterfield Butterfield allowed eBay to launch another segment of their business called eBay Great Collections’. EBay Great Collections’ abetted eBay in capitalizing on a very unique but very lucrative segment of consumers which was antique collectors. This deal between eBay and Butterflied and Butterflied also ushered in a brand new era of mega deals between eBay and several