EBay

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Learn more about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.

eBay is an online marketplace with 100 million active users worldwide and $68.6 billion in total value of goods sold annually as of the fourth quarter of 2011.[1] It owns the online financial company PayPal since 2002, as well as GSI Commerce, X.Commerce, and MercadoLibre.[2] The company grossed $11.7 billion in 2011 and netted $3.2 billion in profits[3] and eBay, Inc. reported $14.07 billion in total revenue in 2012.[4] eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and was originally called "AuctionWeb."

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"

The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem."

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

About Fix the Debt
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem." Through a special report and new interactive wiki resource, the Center for Media and Democracy -- in partnership with the Nation magazine -- exposes the funding, the leaders, the partner groups, and the phony state "chapters" of this astroturf supergroup. Learn more at PetersonPyramid.org and in the Nation magazine.


Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

eBay has been a corporate funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and a member of ALEC's Communications and Technology Task Force.[5] See ALEC Corporations for more.

In July 2012, ColorOfChange.org announced that it was asking its members to call on eBay to drop its ties to ALEC.[6] eBay competitor Amazon.com announced during its annual shareholder meeting in May 2012 that it had dropped ALEC.[7]

eBay tweeted from its official corporate account on December 18, 2014, "We are not renewing membership in ALEC."[8] See Corporations Which Have Cut Ties to ALEC for more.

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Personnel

Board of Directors

As of February 2013[9]

  • Pierre Omidyar, Chairman of the Board
  • John Donahoe, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
  • David Marcus, President of Paypal
  • Chris Saridakis, President of GSI
  • Robert Swan, Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President - Finance
  • Devin Wenig, President - eBay Marketplaces
  • Mark Carges, Senior Vice President - Global Products, Marketplaces, Chief Technology Officer
  • Michael Jacobson, Senior Vice President - Legal Affairs, General Counsel, Secretary
  • Elizabeth Axelrod,Senior Vice President - Human Resources
  • Alan Marks, Senior Vice President - Corporate Communications
  • Brian Doerger, Vice President, Principal Accounting Officer
  • Edward Barnholt, Lead Independent Director
  • Fred Anderson
  • Marc Andreessen
  • Scott Cook
  • William Ford
  • Kathleen Mitic
  • David Moffett
  • Richard Schlosberg
  • Thomas Tierney

Executive Management

  • John Donahoe, President & CEO
  • Beth Axelrod, Senior Vice President, Human Resources
  • Mark Carges, Senior Vice President, Global Products, Marketplaces & Chief Technology Officer
  • Michael Jacobson, Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs; General Counsel & Secretary
  • Alan Marks, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
  • Bob Swan, Senior Vice President, Finance & CFO
  • Devin Wenig, President, eBay Global Marketplaces

Contact details

Whitman Campus
2065 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, California 95125

Phone: (800) 322-9266
Fax: (408) 376-7400

website: http://www.ebay.com


eBay Park North
2211 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95131


Corporate & eBay Marketplaces North America Media Relations Hotline: press AT ebay.com


Resources and articles

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

Related Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. ebay, "Annual Report 2011", organization website, accessed February 13, 2013.
  2. eBay, Who We Are, corporate website, accessed July 2012
  3. eBay:US, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, online public company financial profile, accessed July 2012
  4. "Financial Statements for eBay Inc" Google Finance, accessed February 5, 2013
  5. American Legislative Exchange Council, American Legislative Exchange Council Telecommunications & Information Technology as of July 18th, 2011, organizational task force membership director, July 18, 2011, p. 22, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  6. ColorOfChange.org, ColorOfChange Applauds Walgreens' and General Motors' Decisions to End their Membership in ALEC30 Companies Have Left the American Legislative Exchange Council, Announcement Comes During Group's Annual Meeting in Utah; Civil Rights Organization Now Calls on Online Retailer eBay to Drop ALEC, organizational press release, July 26, 2012
  7. Rebekah Wilce, Amazon.com 16th Corporation to Dump ALEC, PRWatch.org, May 24, 2012
  8. eBay Inc., We are not renewing membership in ALEC," @eBayInc corporate Twitter account, December 18, 2014, 3:01pm.
  9. Reuters, "eBay, Inc. People", organization website, accessed February 5, 2013
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