-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: webmaster@www.sec.gov Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFgwCgYEVQgBAQICAf8DSgAwRwJAW2sNKK9AVtBzYZmr6aGjlWyK3XmZv3dTINen TWSM7vrzLADbmYQaionwg5sDW3P6oaM5D3tdezXMm7z1T+B+twIDAQAB MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, Ct7iWZB8NFqrMBegXnXCflm03YMUxD/F45HYCGXMqvY/UPUOJoQTPAXL4wfFRgr9 414PqQLcfUYwn35M/qhkRg== 0001012870-00-002384.txt : 20000501 0001012870-00-002384.hdr.sgml : 20000501 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0001012870-00-002384 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: 10-K/A PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 1 CONFORMED PERIOD OF REPORT: 19991231 FILED AS OF DATE: 20000428 FILER: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: EBAY INC CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0001065088 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: SERVICES-BUSINESS SERVICES, NEC [7389] IRS NUMBER: 770430924 STATE OF INCORPORATION: DE FISCAL YEAR END: 1231 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: 10-K/A SEC ACT: SEC FILE NUMBER: 000-24821 FILM NUMBER: 611221 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 2125 HAMILTON AVENUE CITY: SAN JOSE STATE: CA ZIP: 95125 BUSINESS PHONE: 4085587400 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 2125 HAMILTON AVENUE CITY: SAN JOSE STATE: CA ZIP: 95125 10-K/A 1 AMENDMENT 1 TO FORM 10-K - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 ---------------- FORM 10-K/A AMENDMENT NO. 1 (Mark One) [X] Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended Annual December 31, 1999. OR [_] Transition Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the Transition Period from _________ to _________. Commission File Number 000-24821 ---------------- eBay Inc. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 77-0430924 (State or Other Jurisdiction (I.R.S. Employer of Incorporation or Organization) Identification Number) 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125 (Address of Principal Executive Offices, Including Zip Code) (408) 558-7400 (Registrant's Telephone Number, Including Area Code) Securities registered under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act: None Securities registered under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act: Common Stock, $0.001 par value ---------------- Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes [X] No [_] Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. [_] As of March 1, 2000 there were 130,182,905 shares of the Registrant's Common Stock, $0.001 par value, outstanding, which is the only class of common or voting stock of the registrant issued as of that date. The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the closing price for the Common Stock as quoted by the Nasdaq Stock Market as of March 1, 2000 was approximately $7,711,442,000. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE Items 10 through 13 are incorporated by reference to the Company's Proxy Statement for the 2000 annual meeting of shareholders to be filed by May 1st, 2000. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART I Item 1: Business This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations about our company and our industry. You can identify these forward-looking statements when you see us using words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate" and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of the factors described in the "Risk Factors" section of Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and elsewhere in this report. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future. The Company eBay Inc. ("eBay" or the "Company") is the world's largest and most popular personal trading community on the Internet, based on the value of goods traded on the eBay service. eBay, was formed as a sole proprietorship in September 1995, incorporated in California in May 1996 and reincorporated in Delaware in April 1998. eBay pioneered online personal trading by developing a Web-based community in which buyers and sellers are brought together in an efficient and entertaining format to buy and sell items such as automobiles, collectibles, high-end or premium art items, jewelry, consumer electronics and a host of practical and miscellaneous items. The eBay service permits sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items. The Company's service is fully automated, topically arranged, intuitive and easy to use. From December 31, 1998 to December 31 1999, the number of registered eBay users grew from approximately 2.1 million to over 10 million. eBay users listed over 41 million items for sale during the fourth quarter of 1999, up from 13.64 million items in the fourth quarter of 1998. As of December 31, 1999, the Company had over 3.0 million items listed in over 3,000 categories. Browsers and buyers can search listings for specific items or search by category, key word, seller name, recently commenced auctions or auctions about to end. The eBay pricing format based on auctions creates a sense of urgency among buyers to bid for goods and creates an entertaining and compelling trading environment. eBay also provides buyers and sellers a place to socialize and to discuss topics of common interest. This compelling trading environment fosters a large and growing commerce-oriented online community. Industry Background Growth of the Internet and Online Commerce The Internet has emerged as a global medium enabling millions of people worldwide to share information, communicate and conduct business electronically. International Data Corporation ("IDC") estimated that the number of Web users would grow from approximately 150 million worldwide in 1998 to approximately 500 million worldwide by the end of 2003. The growing adoption of the Web represents an enormous opportunity for businesses to conduct commerce over the Internet. IDC estimated that commerce over the Internet would increase from approximately $40 billion worldwide in 1998 to approximately $900 billion worldwide in 2003. The Personal Trading Market Opportunity eBay's trading platform has historically offered the exchange of goods among individuals and small businesses, competing with classified advertisements, collectibles shows, garage sales, flea markets and other venues such as auction houses. As eBay's service has evolved, its applicability has expanded to broader categories of items, and to a broader and more global user base. As a result, the Company's product mix has begun to shift from primarily collectibles to practical everyday items, such as household goods, office equipment, 1 services, and other items. With the shift to a broader product offering, the Company's competition has also broadened, and now includes distributors, liquidators, retailers, import/export companies, catalog/mail order companies, and virtually all online and offline commerce participants (consumer-to- consumer, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business). Many of these traditional forums are inefficient because: . their fragmented, regional nature makes it difficult and expensive for buyers and sellers to meet, exchange information and complete transactions; . they may offer a limited variety or breadth of goods; . they often have high transaction costs; and . they are information inefficient, as buyers and sellers lack a reliable and convenient means of setting prices for sales or purchases. The Internet offers the first opportunity to create a compelling global marketplace that overcomes the inefficiencies associated with traditional trading among individuals and small businesses. An Internet-based, centralized trading place offers the following benefits: . facilitates buyers and sellers meeting, listing items for sale, exchanging information, interacting with each other and, ultimately, consummating transactions; . allows buyers and sellers to trade directly, bypassing traditional intermediaries and lowering costs for both parties; . is global in reach, offering buyers a significantly broader selection of goods to purchase and providing sellers the opportunity to sell their goods efficiently to a broader base of buyers; . offers significant convenience, allowing trading at all hours and providing continuously updated information; and . fosters a sense of community through direct buyer and seller communication, thereby enabling interaction between individuals with mutual interests. In addition, the community orientation, facilitation of direct buyer to seller communication and efficient access to information on a buyer's or seller's trading history can help alleviate the risks of trading. As a result, a significant market opportunity exists for an Internet-based, centralized trading environment that applies the unique attributes of the Internet to facilitate personal trading. The eBay Solution eBay pioneered personal trading of a wide range of goods over the Internet using an efficient and entertaining auction pricing format and has grown into the largest and most popular personal trading platform on the Internet. The core eBay service permits sellers to list items for sale, buyers to bid for and purchase items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items from any place in the world at any time. eBay offers buyers a large selection of new and used items that can be difficult and costly to find through traditional means. eBay also enables sellers to reach a larger number of buyers more cost-effectively than traditional trading forums. The eBay service was originally introduced in September 1995 to create an efficient forum for individuals to trade with one another. Since its beginning as a grassroots online trading community, eBay has primarily attracted buyers and sellers through word of mouth and by providing buyers and sellers a place to socialize, discuss topics of common interest and ultimately to trade goods with one another. The number of categories under which eBay users list goods for sale has grown from 10, when eBay was first introduced, to more than 3,000 as of December 31, 1999. The main categories on eBay currently include automobiles, antiques & art, books, movies, music, coins & stamps, collectibles, computers, dolls, dollhouses, jewelry, photo & electronics, pottery & glass, sports, toys, miscellaneous items ("everything else"), and premium arts and collectibles. 2 The principal reasons for eBay's success are as follows: Largest Online Trading Forum. Unlike other commerce trading forums, eBay has aggregated a critical mass of buyers, sellers and items listed for sale. As a result, eBay has become the largest online personal trading forum. As of December 31, 1999, eBay had over 10 million registered users, offered more than 3,000 product categories and listed more than 3.0 million items for sale, many of which were unique or otherwise hard to find. Compelling Trading Environment. eBay has created a distinctive trading environment by utilizing an entertaining pricing format, establishing procedural rules and promoting community values that are designed to facilitate trade and communications between buyers and sellers. The trading environment's efficiency is illustrated by the limited need for eBay to intervene or play a significant role in the trading process. The auction pricing format creates a sense of urgency among buyers to bid for goods because of the uncertain future availability of unique items on the website. Similarly, by accepting multiple bids at increasing prices, the auction pricing format provides sellers a more efficient means of obtaining a maximum price for their products. Trust and Safety Programs. The Company has developed a number of programs designed to make users more comfortable with dealing with an unknown trading partner over the Web. The Company's Feedback Forum encourages every eBay user to provide comments and feedback on other eBay users with whom they interact and offers user profiles that provide feedback ratings and incorporate these comments. In addition, eBay's expanded SafeHarbor(TM) program provides guidelines for trading, helps provide information to resolve user disputes, responds to reports of misuse of the eBay service and, if necessary, warns or suspends users who violate the terms of the Company's user agreement. The Company's ongoing trust and safety initiatives, including user verification, credit card requirements for sellers, insurance, integrated escrow, authentication and new means to help keep previously suspended users from re- registering on eBay, are all intended to bolster eBay's reputation as a safe place to trade. The Company has also developed an extensive set of rules and guidelines designed to educate users and help implement eBay's policy of prohibiting the sale of illegal or pirated items. Cost-Effective, Convenient Trading. eBay allows its buyers and sellers to bypass traditionally expensive, regionally fragmented intermediaries and transact business on a seven-day-a-week basis. Because sellers bypass costly intermediaries, they have lower selling costs and an increased likelihood of finding buyers willing to pay the target price. Listing an item on eBay requires sellers to generally pay a nominal placement fee ranging from $0.25 to $2.00 and an additional success fee from 5% to 1.25% of the transaction value if the sale is concluded successfully. eBay charges different fees for certain categories of items, including autos and real estate. As a result, sellers can sell relatively inexpensive items which had previously been prohibitively expensive to list through most traditional trading forums. By allowing sellers to conveniently reach a broad range of buyers, eBay also addresses the time-consuming, logistical inconvenience of individual selling. Buyers have access to a broad selection of items and avoid the need to pay expensive markups or commissions to intermediaries. Buyers are not charged for trading on eBay. The critical mass of items listed on eBay provides a mutual benefit for buyers and sellers allowing both to effectively determine an appropriate price for an item. Strong Community Affinity. The Company believes that fostering direct interaction between buyers and sellers with similar interests has enabled it to create a loyal, active community of users. eBay has introduced a variety of features and services designed to strengthen this sense of community among eBay users. The Company facilitates communications between buyers and sellers by offering chat rooms, bulletin boards, threaded discussion boards, customer support assistance from eBay personnel or other eBay users and by providing "About Me" user pages. These community features encourage consumer loyalty and repeat usage. Intuitive User Experience. The eBay service is a fully automated, topically arranged, intuitive and easy-to-use online service that is available on a seven-day-a-week basis. Within minutes of completing a simple online form, a seller can list items for sale on the service, and buyers can submit bids for items quickly and easily. Buyers can easily search the millions of items listed by category or specific item. During the course of the transaction, bidders are notified by email of the status of their bids on a daily basis and are notified immediately if they are outbid. Sellers and successful bidders are automatically notified when an transaction is completed. To assist users further, the Company offers email customer support staffed on a seven-day-a- week basis. 3 eBay Strategy The Company's objective is to build upon its position as the world's leading online personal trading platform. The key elements of eBay's strategy are to: Expand the eBay Community and Strengthen the eBay Brand. The Company believes that building greater awareness of the eBay brand within and beyond the eBay community is critical to expanding its user base and to maintaining the vitality of the eBay community. Although the Company's early growth and much of its current growth is attributable to word of mouth, the Company has introduced aggressive marketing efforts to build its user base and its brand name. These include: . advertising in targeted publications; . strategic advertising and sponsorship placements on high traffic websites; . radio advertising campaigns; and . active participation in other forums such as selected trade shows. These traditional and online media placements and word of mouth advertising give eBay frequent and high visibility media exposure both nationally and locally. Broaden the eBay Trading Platform. The Company has pursued a multi-pronged strategy for growing the eBay platform within existing product categories, across new product categories and through geographic expansion--both local and international. The Company targeted key product categories in its user programs and marketing activities. The Company has expanded and developed existing product categories by introducing category-specific bulletin boards and chat rooms, integrating category-specific content, advertising its service in targeted publications and participating in targeted trade shows. In addition, the Company broadened the range of products offered on its trading platform by seeking to attract new users from the general audience of Internet users and adding product categories, content, features and other services to meet this new user demand. The increasing number and importance of practical (as opposed to collectible) items on the site is illustrative of this broadened range. The Company has also broadened the range of products that it offers to facilitate trading on the site, including payment services, shipping services, authentication and escrow services. In addition, the Company intends to offer its community additional pricing formats such as fixed price sales. Key improvements implemented during 1999 include: . the acquisition of Kruse International, one of the largest land-based auctioneers of collectible cars in the world. This acquisition provided expertise in the automobile market and led to the launch of eBay's collectible and used car categories online; . the acquisition of Butterfield & Butterfield ("B&B"), the fourth largest auctioneer of fine arts and collectibles in the world. This acquisition permitted the launch of "eBay Great Collections," designed to showcase high quality items from auction houses and dealers around the world; . the launch of eBay Regional sites. In 1999, eBay launched 53 regional sites that address the 50 largest statistical metropolitan areas in the United States to encourage the sale of items that are too bulky or expensive to ship, items of a local interest and items that people prefer to view before purchasing; and . the launch of over 2,000 new categories that make it easier to find items in diverse categories. Foster eBay Community Affinity. The Company continues to enhance what is already the largest and one of the most loyal online trading communities on the Web. By instilling a vibrant eBay community experience, the Company seeks to maintain a critical mass of frequent buyers and sellers with a vested interest in the eBay community. The Company believes that new community tools, such as AboutMe personal pages and the recently introduced threaded message boards will continue to contribute to the community dynamic. The Company's recent trust and safety initiatives, including user verification, requirements for new sellers to have a credit card 4 on file, insurance, integrated escrow, authentication and appraisal, are intended to bolster eBay's reputation as a safe place to trade. Consistent with its desire to foster community, the Company has organized a charitable fund, known as the eBay Foundation, and involves the members of the eBay community in determining to which charitable purposes the eBay Foundation's funds will be applied. See "-The eBay Service-Community Services." Enhance Features and Functionality. The Company intends to continually update and enhance the features and functionality of the eBay website in order to continue to improve the trading experience on eBay. In 1999, the Company added several new features and services to help buyers and sellers trade with greater ease. In January 1999, the Company introduced the "Gallery" and in September 1999, the ability to search while in the Gallery mode. The Gallery showcases items in a catalog of pictures rather than text. For sellers, the Company introduced "Mr. Lister 2.0", a software tool that permits automated listing of multiple items for sale on eBay. For buyers, the Company introduced "Personal Shopper", an automated tool that permits buyers to indicate items of interest that they are alerted to by email when those items are available for sale on eBay. In June 1999, the Company launched an improved user interface to make it easier to find information on the eBay site. The Company also launched its "eBay Anywhere" strategy to permit eBay users to access trading information through wireless devices such as Skytel 2-way pagers and the Palm VII personal data assistant. The Company intends to continue refining its features and services to permit easier, safer and more efficient trade on eBay. The Company will also continue to provide rapid system response and transaction processing time by investing in its infrastructure in order to accommodate additional users, content and items for sale. Generally, added features and functionality are deemed to be elements of the ongoing revision and maintenance of the eBay site. Hardware and software purchases and customization associated with revisions have been capitalized in accordance with company policy and are included in computer equipment and software. Due to the speed of change and continuous nature of site revision, internal expenses often are judged to have useful lives of less than one year, or have been more appropriately classified as maintenance related costs. As such, these costs are expensed as incurred. Expand Value-Added Services. In order to offer an end-to-end personal trading service, the Company intends to provide a variety of "pre-trade" and "post-trade" services to enhance the user experience and make trading easier. "Pre-trade" services make listing items for sale easier and include photo hosting, authentication and seller productivity software. "Post-trade" services make transactions easier and more comfortable to consummate, such as payment facilitation, insurance, escrow, shipping and postage. The company currently provides, or will provide, these services directly or through strategic partnerships with third parties. Key improvements implemented during 1999 include: . the acquisition and partial implementation of Billpoint, which enables person-to-person payment on the Internet. In February 2000, eBay announced a strategic relationship with Wells Fargo & Co. ("Wells Fargo") to jointly address the growing need for person to person payments on the Internet. As part of the relationship, Wells Fargo purchased a 35% equity interest in Billpoint from Billpoint. Wells Fargo also entered into a long-term payment processing and customer care contract with Billpoint; . a strategic relationship with E-Stamp to offering electronic postage to users of eBay; and . the acquisition of Blackthorne Software which offers the leading seller productivity software under the "Auction Assistant" brand. The company anticipates that future service offerings may include services to facilitate the uploading and hosting of photos of listed items, the shipment of products and expanding the Billpoint payment solution to more of the eBay community and the Internet community at large. Develop International Markets. The Company believes that the Internet provides a significant opportunity for the creation of a global trading market. The Company intends to take advantage of this opportunity by leveraging the eBay service and brand name internationally by developing eBay for selected international 5 markets and actively marketing and promoting these services. The Company has introduced country-specific services for Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and as of February 2000, Japan. The Company believes that its user base already includes users located in over 200 countries. The Company can choose from several strategies to enter new international markets including building a user community from scratch, acquiring a company already in the local trading market or partnering with strong local companies. The company has adopted each of these strategies where appropriate, including the following: . eBay's presence in the United Kingdom has been built with local management, grass roots and online marketing and local events; . the market in Germany was built primarily through the June 1999 acquisition of alando.de.ag, an existing German trading service; . the Company entered into a joint venture with a subsidiary of one of the largest media companies in Australia and New Zealand to penetrate that market; and . the Company announced in February 2000 that it had entered into a relationship with NEC to jointly address the market in Japan. As part of that agreement, NEC agreed to purchase a 30% equity interest in eBay Japan. The eBay Service The eBay trading platform is a robust, Internet-based, centralized trading environment that facilitates buying and selling of a wide variety of items. Registration. While any visitor to eBay can browse through the eBay service and view the items listed for sale, in order to bid for an item or to list an item for sale, buyers and sellers must first register with eBay. Users register by completing a short online form and thereafter can immediately bid for an item or list an item for sale. Users in Canada, Germany, Japan (as of February 2000), Australia and the United Kingdom may instead register through a country- specific home page. Buying on eBay. Buyers typically enter eBay through its home page, which contains a listing of product categories that allows for easy exploration of current items for sale. Bidders can search for specific items by browsing through a list of items within a category or subcategory and then "clicking through" to a detailed description for a particular item. Bidders also can search specific categories, interest pages or the entire database of item listings using keywords to describe the types of products in which they are interested, and eBay's search engine will generate a list of relevant items with links to the detailed descriptions. Each item is assigned a unique identifier so that users can easily search for and track specific items. Users also can search for a particular bidder or seller by name in order to review his or her item for sale and feedback history as well as search for products by specific region or search in "Gallery" mode. Once a bidder has found an item of interest and registered with eBay, the bidder enters the maximum amount he or she is willing to pay at that time. In the event of competitive bids, the eBay service automatically increases bidding in increments based upon the then current highest bid for the item, up to the bidder's maximum price. As eBay encourages direct interaction between buyers and sellers, bidders wishing additional information about a listed item can access the seller's email address and contact the seller. The Company believes that this interaction between bidders and sellers leverages the personal, one-on-one nature of trading on the Web and is an important element of the eBay experience. Once each bid is made, eBay sends a confirmation to the bidder via email, an outbid notice to the next highest bidder and automatically updates the item's auction status. During the course of the sale, eBay notifies bidders immediately via email if they are outbid. Bidders are not charged for making bids or purchases through eBay. In addition, buyers can also specify items of interest on a service called "Personal Shopper" and receive automated email messages when particular items are available for sale on eBay. Selling on eBay. Sellers registered with eBay can list a product for sale by completing a short online form or using "Mr. Lister," "Auction Assistant" or third party tools that facilitates the listing of multiple items. The 6 seller selects a minimum price for opening bids for the item and chooses whether the sale will last three, five, seven or ten days. Additionally, a seller may select a reserve price for an item, which is the minimum price at which the seller is willing to sell the item and is typically higher than the minimum price set for the opening bid. The reserve price is not disclosed to bidders. A seller can elect to sell items in individual item listings or, if he or she has multiple identical items, can elect to hold a "Dutch Auction." For example, an individual wishing to sell 10 identical watches could hold 10 individual auctions or hold a Dutch Auction in which the 10 highest bidders would each receive a watch at the same price and all lower bids would be rejected. To be eligible to hold a Dutch auction, a seller must have a sufficiently high feedback rating and must have been a registered seller for at least 60 days. A seller may also specify that an auction will be a private auction. With this format, bidders' e-mail addresses are not disclosed on the item screen or bidding history screen. Sellers generally pay a nominal placement fee to list items for sale--$0.25 for an item listing with a minimum starting price of less than $10.00, $0.50 for a minimum starting price of $10.00 to $24.99, $1.00 for a minimum starting price of $25.00 to $49.99 and $2.00 for a minimum starting price of $50.00 or more. By paying an additional $1.00, sellers can choose to have a reserve selling price below which they are not obligated to sell the item. By paying incremental placement fees, sellers can have items featured in various ways. A seller can highlight his or her item for sale by utilizing a bold font for the item heading for an additional fee of $2.00. A seller with a favorable feedback rating can have his or her auction featured as a "Featured Auction" for $99.95, which allows the seller's item to be rotated on the eBay home page, or as a "Category Featured Auction" for $14.95, which allows his or her item to be featured within a particular eBay category. A seller can choose to place a seasonal icon (such as a shamrock in connection with St. Patrick's Day) next to his or her listing for $1.00. A seller can also include a description of the product with links to the seller's website. In addition, a seller can include a photograph in the item's description if the seller posts the photograph on a website and provides eBay with the appropriate Web address. Items may be showcased in the Gallery section with a catalog of pictures rather than text. A seller who uses a photograph in his or her listing can have this photograph included in the Gallery section for $0.25 or featured in the Gallery section for $19.95. The Gallery feature is available in all categories of eBay. Certain categories of items, including real estate, automobiles and "Great Collections" have different pricing. All pricing is subject to change. How Transactions are Completed. When an auction ends, the eBay system validates if a bid exceeded the minimum price, and the reserve price if one has been set. If the sale was successful, eBay automatically notifies the buyer and seller via email and the buyer and seller can then consummate the transaction independent of eBay. At the time of the email notification, eBay generally charges the seller a success fee equal to 5% of the first $25 of the purchase price, 2.5% of that portion of the purchase price from $25.01 to $1,000, and 1.25% of that portion of the purchase price over $1,000. At no point during the process does the Company take possession of either the item being sold or the buyer's payment for the item. Rather, the buyer and seller must independently arrange for the shipment of and payment for the item, with the buyer typically paying for shipping. A seller can view a buyer's feedback rating and then determine the manner of payment, such as personal check, cashier's check or credit card, and also whether to ship the item before or after the payment is received. Under the terms of the Company's user agreement, if a seller receives one or more bids above the stated minimum or reserve price, whichever is higher, the seller is obligated to complete a transaction, although the Company has no power to force the seller or buyer to complete the transaction other than to suspend them from using the eBay service. In the event the buyer and seller are unable to complete the transaction and the seller notifies eBay, eBay credits the seller the amount of the success fee. When items that have a reserve price sell, sellers are credited the $1.00 reserve fee. Invoices for placement fees, additional listing fees and success fees are sent via email to sellers on a monthly basis. All new sellers are required to have a credit card account on file with eBay. Sellers who pay by credit card are charged shortly after the invoice is sent. Feedback Forum. eBay pioneered a feature to facilitate the establishment of reputations within its community by encouraging individuals to record comments about their trading partners on each transaction. Every registered eBay user has a feedback profile containing compliments, criticisms and other comments by users who have conducted business or interacted with the person. A recent enhancement to the Feedback Forum requires feedback to be related to specific transactions and provides an easy tool for them to match up transaction 7 numbers with the user names of their trading partners. This information is recorded in a feedback profile that includes a feedback rating for the person and indicates comments from other eBay users who have interacted with that person over the past seven days, the past month, the past six months and beyond. A user who has developed positive reputations over time will have a color coded star symbol displayed next to his or her user name to indicate the amount of positive feedback received by the user. eBay users may review a person's feedback profile to check on the person's reputation within the eBay community before deciding to bid on an item listed by that person or in determining how to complete the payment for and delivery of the item. The terms of the Company's user agreement prohibit actions that would undermine the integrity of the Feedback Forum, such as a person's leaving positive feedback about himself or herself through other accounts or leaving multiple negative feedback for others through other accounts. The Feedback Forum system has several automated features designed to detect and prevent some forms of abuse. For example, feedback posting from the same account, positive or negative, cannot affect a user's net feedback rating (i.e., the number of positive postings, less the number of negative postings) by more than one point, no matter how many comments an individual makes. Furthermore, a user can only give feedback to his or her trading partners in completed transactions. Users who receive a sufficiently negative net feedback rating have their registrations suspended and are unable to bid on or list items for sale. The Company believes its Feedback Forum is extremely useful in overcoming initial user hesitancy when trading over the Internet, as it reduces the anonymity and uncertainty of dealing with an unknown trading partner. See "Risk Factors--We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our service." Trust and Safety Initiatives. The Company developed a number of programs designed to make users more comfortable with dealing with an unknown trading partner over the Web. In addition to the Feedback Forum, the Company offers the SafeHarbor(TM) program, which provides guidelines for trading, helps provide information to resolve user disputes and responds to reports of misuses of the eBay service. The Company's SafeHarbor(TM) staff of 182 persons, including regular employees and contractors, investigates users' complaints of possible misuse of eBay and take appropriate action, including issuing warnings to users or suspending users from bidding on or listing items for sale. Some of the complaints the SafeHarbor(TM) staff investigates include various forms of bid manipulation, malicious posting of negative feedback and posting illegal items for sale. The SafeHarbor(TM) group is organized into three areas; investigations, community watch and fraud prevention. The investigations group investigates reported trading infractions and misuse of eBay. The fraud prevention department provides information to assist users with disputes over the quality of the goods sold or potentially fraudulent transactions and, upon receipt of an officially filed, written claim of fraud from a user, will generally suspend the offending user from eBay. The community watch department investigates the listing of illegal, infringing or inappropriate items on the eBay site and violations of certain eBay policies. Upon receipt of a written claim of intellectual property infringement by the owner of the intellectual property, the Company will remove the offending item from eBay. Users who repeatedly infringe intellectual property rights are suspended. In addition, the Company has increased the number of personnel reviewing potentially illegal items. The Company's trust and safety initiatives, including user identity verification, insurance, integrated escrow and authentication, are intended to bolster eBay's reputation as a safe place to trade. See "Risk Factors--Our business may be harmed by fraudulent activities on our website." eBay has also recently partnered with Infoglide, a leading provider of similarity search technology, to help keep previously suspended users from re-registering on eBay. The Company has introduced a requirement that new sellers must provide a credit card or pass an identity verification check before being allowed to sell. The identify verification process is performed by Equifax. 8 What Can Be Purchased or Sold on eBay. The eBay service has grown from offering 10 product categories when it was first introduced in September 1995 to offering more than 3,000 categories as of December 31, 1999. As the number of product categories has grown, the Company periodically organizes the categories under different headings to reflect the major types of items currently listed. As of February 2000, these product categories were organized under the following headings: Automobiles Great Collections (Premium items) Antiques & Art Jewelry, Gemstones Books, Movies, Music Photo & Electronics Coins & Stamps Pottery & Glass Collectibles Sports Computers Toys & Beanie Babies Dolls, Dollhouses Everything Else Each category has numerous subcategories. As of December 31, 1999, eBay offered a selection of over 3 million items, with the most popular items sold on eBay being those that are relatively standardized, well-represented with a photo (and therefore can be evaluated to some degree without a physical inspection), small and easily shippable, and relatively inexpensive. As the eBay community grows and additional items are listed, the Company will continue to organize items for sale under additional categories to respond to the needs of the eBay community. Community Services. Beyond providing a convenient means of trading, eBay has devoted substantial resources to building an online trading community, which the Company believes is one of the strongest on the Web. Key components of the Company's community philosophy are maintaining an honest and open marketplace and treating individual users with respect. The Company offers a variety of community and support features that are designed to solidify the growth of the eBay community and to build eBay user affinity and loyalty. eBay facilitates communication between buyers and sellers by offering: . category-specific chat rooms; . the eBay Cafe, a chat room for the entire eBay community; . a bulletin board devoted to user feedback on new features; . an announcements section that covers new features on eBay or other eBay news; . customer support boards; and . ""items wanted" listings where users can post notices seeking specific items. eBay also offers My eBay, which permits users to receive a report of their recent activity on eBay, including bidding activity, selling activity, account balances, favorite categories and recent feedback. Users with their own Web pages also can post link buttons from the user's page to eBay and to a list of items the user is selling on eBay. The Company recently introduced About Me, which offers users the opportunity to create their own personal home page free of charge on eBay using step-by-step instructions provided by the Company. The About Me home page can include personal information, items listed for sale, eBay feedback ratings, images and links to other favorite sites. In addition, in June 1998, the Company donated 321,750 shares of Common Stock to the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, a tax-exempt donor-advised public charity, and established a fund known as the "eBay Foundation." Through the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, the eBay Foundation sponsors programs including a recent program in which teachers travel abroad and share their experiences with their students. The Company solicits user suggestions for worthwhile charities through the eBay website. Customer Support. The Company devotes significant resources to providing personalized, timely customer service and support. eBay offers customer support on a seven-day-a-week basis. Most customer support inquiries are handled via email, with customer email inquiries typically being answered within 24 hours after submission. 9 In 1999, the Company partnered with Customer Cast, an online customer satisfaction survey company, to enable eBay to understand and improve on how well it was serving its customers. Overall customer satisfaction for the Company's core support email services has improved significantly since launching the survey in July 1999. The Company offers an online tutorial for new eBay users. In June 1999, the Company opened a new customer support center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The center has grown rapidly and, by the end of 1999, was handling the majority of customer support email. In addition, the Company offers the SafeHarbor(TM) program and has recently introduced or is developing a number of trust and safety initiatives. See "--Trust and Safety Initiatives" above. Marketing eBay's marketing strategy is to promote its brand and attract buyers and sellers to the eBay service. To attract users to its website, eBay historically has relied primarily on word of mouth and, to a lesser extent, on distribution or sponsorship relationships with high traffic websites. Today, the Company employs a variety of methods to promote its brand and attract potential buyers and sellers. Currently, eBay uses strategic purchases of online advertising to place advertisements in areas in which the Company believes it can reach its target audience. The Company also engages in a number of marketing activities in traditional media such as advertising; print media and at trade shows and other events. eBay also advertises in a number of targeted publications. The Company continues to benefit from frequent and high visibility media exposure both nationally and locally. While the Company does not expect the frequency or quality of this type of publicity to continue, the Company does promote public relations through initiatives such as online eBay/special event tie-ins and executive speaking engagements. In March 1999, the Company expanded the scope of its preexisting strategic relationship with AOL. Under the amended agreement, eBay was given a prominent presence featuring it as the preferred provider of personal trading services on AOL's proprietary services (both domestic and international), AOL.com, Digital Cities, ICQ, CompuServe (both domestic and international) and Netscape. eBay will pay $75 million over the four-year term of the contract. eBay has developed a co-branded version of its service for each AOL property which prominently features each party's brand. AOL is entitled to all advertising revenue from the co-branded sites. Subsequent to year-end, eBay entered into marketing agreements with Autotrader.com and GO.com Operations and Technology eBay has a scalable user interface and transaction processing system that is based on internally-developed proprietary software. The eBay system facilitates the sale process, including notifying users via email when they initially register for the service, when they place a successful bid, are outbid, place an item for sale, and when an auction ends. Furthermore, the system sends daily status updates to any active sellers and bidders regarding the state of their current auctions. The system maintains user registration information, billing accounts, current auctions and historical listings. All information is regularly archived. Complete listings of all items for sale are generated regularly. The system regularly updates a text-based search engine with the titles and descriptions of new items, as well as pricing and bidding updates for active items. Every time an item is listed on the service, a listing enhancement option is selected by a seller, or an auction closes with a bid in excess of the seller-specified minimum bid, the system makes an entry into the seller's billing account. The system sends electronic invoices to all sellers via email on a monthly basis. For convenience, sellers may place a credit card account number on file with eBay, and their account balance is billed directly. Sellers that are new to the eBay service are now required to place a credit card account number on file. In addition to these features, the eBay service also supports a number of community bulletin board and chat areas where users and eBay customer support personnel can interact. The Company's system has been designed around industry standard architectures and has been designed to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. The eBay service provides seven-day-a-week availability, subject to a maintenance period for a few hours during one night per week. eBay's system hardware is hosted at the Exodus and Abovenet facilities in Santa Clara, California, which provide redundant communications lines and emergency power backup. The Company's system consists of Sun database servers running Oracle relational database management systems and a suite of Pentium-based Internet servers running 10 the Windows NT operating system. The Company uses Resonate Inc.'s load balancing systems and its own redundant servers to provide for fault tolerance. The Company has experienced periodic system interruptions, which it believes will continue to occur from time to time. These outages have stemmed from a variety of causes, including third-party hardware and software problems and human error. The volume of traffic on the Company's website and the number of items being listed by users has been increasing continually and exponentially, requiring the Company to expand and upgrade its technology, transaction processing systems and network infrastructure and add new engineering personnel. The process of upgrading and expansion is part of the routine maintenance and revision of the site. Hardware and software changes associated with the continuous revision have been capitalized in accordance with company policy and are included in computer equipment and software. Due to the speed of change and continuous nature of site revision, internal expenses often are judged to have useful lives of less than one year, or have been more appropriately classified as maintenance related costs. As such, these costs are expensed as incurred. The Company may be unable to accurately project the rate or timing of increases, if any, in the use of the eBay service or expand and upgrade its systems and infrastructure to accommodate these increases in a timely manner. Any failure to expand or upgrade its systems at least as fast as the growth in demand for capacity could cause the website to become unstable and possibly cease to operate for periods of time. Unscheduled downtime could harm the Company's business. The Company uses internally developed systems to operate its service and for transaction processing, including billing and collections processing. The Company must continually improve these systems to accommodate the level of use of its website. In addition, the Company may add new features and functionality to its services that would result in the need to develop or license additional technologies. The Company's inability to add additional software and hardware or to upgrade its technology, transaction processing systems or network infrastructure to accommodate increased traffic or transaction volume could have adverse consequences. These consequences include unanticipated system disruptions, slower response times, degradation in levels of customer support, impaired quality of the users' experience on its service and delays in reporting accurate financial information. The Company's failure to provide new features or functionality also could result in these consequences. The Company may be unable to effectively upgrade and expand its systems in a timely manner or integrate smoothly any newly developed or purchased technologies with its existing systems. These difficulties could harm or limit its ability to expand its business. See "Risk Factors--The inability to expand our systems may limit our growth" and "--System failures could harm our business." The Company incurred $831,000, $4.6 million and $23.8 million in product development expenses in 1997, 1998 and 1999, respectively. The Company anticipates that it will continue to devote significant resources to product development in the future as it adds new features and functionality to the eBay service. The Company capitalizes hardware and software associated with added features or functionality in accordance with company policy and includes such amounts in computer equipment and software. Internal expenses are often judged to have useful lives of less than one year, or have been more appropriately classified as maintenance related costs. As such, these costs are expensed as incurred. The market in which the Company competes is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, frequent new service and product announcements, introductions and enhancements and changing customer demands. Accordingly, the Company's future success will depend on its ability to adapt to rapidly changing technologies, adapt its services evolving industry standards and to continually improve the performance, features and reliability of its service in response to competitive service and product offerings and evolving demands of the marketplace. The failure of the Company to adapt to these changes would harm the Company's business. In addition, the widespread adoption of new Internet, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures by the Company to modify or adapt the Company's services or infrastructure. See "Risk Factors--Our failure to manage growth could harm us;" "--We must keep pace with rapid technological change to remain competitive" and "--We need to develop new services, features and functions in order to expand." Competition Online personal trading is a new, rapidly evolving and intensely competitive area. The Company expects competition to intensify in the future as the barriers to entry are relatively low, and current and new competitors can launch new sites at a nominal cost using commercially available software. Depending on the category of 11 product, eBay currently or potentially competes with a number of companies serving particular categories of goods as well as those serving broader ranges of goods. Broad-based competitors include the vast majority of traditional department and general merchandise stores as well as emerging online retailers. These include most prominently: Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, Sears, Macy's, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Costco, Sam's Club as well as Amazon.com, Buy.com, AOL.com, Yahoo! shopping and MSN. In addition, eBay faces competition from specialty retailers and exchanges in each of its categories of products. For example: Antiques: Christies, eHammer, Sotheby's / Sothebys.com, Sothebys.amazon.com Coins & Stamps: Collectors Universe, Heritage, Numismatists Online, US Mint Collectibles: Franklin Mint Musical Instruments: Guitar Center, Harmony-Central.com, MARRS, MusicHotBid.com Sports Memorabilia: Beckett's, Collectors Universe Toys, Bean Bag Plush: Amazon.com, eToys.com, KB Toys, Toys.com, Toys R Us Premium Collectibles: Christies, DuPont Registry, Gavelnet, Greg Manning Auctions, iCollector, Lycos / Skinner Auctions, Millionaire.com, Phillips (LVMH), Sotheby's, Sothebys.amazon.com Automotive (used cars): Auction Auto.com, Autobytel.com, AutoMallUSA, AutoVantage.com, AutoWeb.com, Barrett-Jackson, CarOrder.com, CarPoint, CarScene.com, eClassics.com, Edmunds, GreenLight.com, Hemmings, Newspaper classifieds, Used car dealers Books, Movies, Music: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Barnesandnoble.com, BigStar, Blockbuster, BMG Columbia House, CDNow, Cductive.com, DVD Express, Half.com, Reel.com, Spinner.com, Wherehouse, Alibris.com, Bookfinders.com Clothing: Bluefly.com, Boo.com, Dockers.com, FashionMall.com, The Gap, J. Crew, LandsEnd.com, The Limited, Lucy.com, Macys, The Men's Wearhouse, Ross, 3Dshopping.com Computers & Consumer Electronics: Best Buy, Buy.com, Circuit City, Compaq, CompUSA, Dell, Egghead, Fry's Electronics, Gateway, The Good Guys, IBM, MicroWarehouse, The Sharper Image, Shopping.com, ValueAmerica.com Home & Garden: IKEA, Crate & Barrel, Furniture.com, Homepoint.com, Home Depot, Living.com, Garden.com, Pottery Barn, Ethan Allen, Frontgate Jewelry: Ashford.com, Mondera.com Sporting Goods/Equipment: dsports.com, FogDog.com, Footlocker, Gear.com, golfclubexchange, golftrader.com, MVP.com, PlanetOutdoors.com, Play It Again Sports, REI, Sports Authority Tools / Equipment / Hardware: Home Depot, HomeBase, Amazon.com, Ace Hardware, OSH Business-to-Business: Ariba, BidFreight.com, BizBuyer.com, bLiquid.com, CloseOutNow.com, CommerceBid.com, Commerce One, Concur Technologies, DoveBid, FreeMarkets, iMark, Oracle, PurchasePro.com, RicardoBiz.com, Sabre, SurplusBin.com, TradeOut.com, UnionStreet.com, Ventro, VerticalNet Additionally, the Company faces competition from various online auction sites including: Amazon.com, the Fairmarket Auction Network (a auction network including Microsoft's MSN, Excite@Home, Dell Computer, ZD Net, Lycos and more than 100 others), First Auction, Surplus Auction, uBid, Yahoo! Auctions and a large number of other companies using an auction format for consumer-to- consumer or business-to-consumer sales. The principal competitive factors in the Company's market include the following: . ability to attract buyers . volume of transactions and selection of goods; 12 . community cohesion and interaction; . system reliability; . customer service; . reliability of delivery and payment by users; . brand recognition; . website convenience and accessibility; . level of service fees; and . quality of search tools. Some current and potential competitors have longer company operating histories, larger customer bases and greater brand recognition in other business and Internet markets than eBay does. Some of these competitors also have significantly greater financial, marketing, technical and other resources. Other online trading services may be acquired by, receive investments from or enter into other commercial relationships with larger, well established and well financed companies. As a result, some of the Company's competitors with other revenue sources may be able to devote more resources to marketing and promotional campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote substantially more resources to website and systems development than the Company is able to do. Increased competition may result in reduced operating margins, loss of market share and diminished value of the eBay brand. Some of the Company's competitors have offered services for free and others may do this as well. The Company may be unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors. In order to respond to changes in the competitive environment, the Company may, from time to time, make pricing, service or marketing decisions or acquisitions that could harm the business. For example, the Company implemented an insurance program that generally insures items up to a value of $200, with a $25 deductible, for users with a non-negative feedback rating at no cost to the user. New technologies may increase the competitive pressures by enabling the Company's competitors to offer a lower cost service. Some Web- based applications that direct Internet traffic to certain websites may channel users to trading services that compete with the Company. Although the Company has established Internet traffic arrangements with several large online services and search engine companies, these arrangements may not be renewed on commercially reasonable terms. Even if these arrangements are renewed, they may not result in increased usage of the eBay service. In addition, companies that control access to transactions through network access or Web browsers could promote the Company's competitors or charge eBay substantial fees for inclusion. The land-based auction business is intensely competitive. B&B competes with two larger and better known auction companies, Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. and Christie's International plc, as well as numerous regional auction companies. To the extent that these companies increase their focus on the middle market properties that form the core of B&B's business, its business may suffer. Kruse is subject to competition from numerous regional competitors. In addition, competition with Internet based auctions may harm the land-based auction business. Although Billpoint's business is new, several new companies are beginning to enter this market and large companies, including banks and credit card companies, may become competitors. Issues Related to the Listing or Sale by Users of Unlawful Items The law relating to the liability of providers of online services for the activities of their users on their service is currently unsettled. The Company is aware that certain goods, such as firearms, other weapons, adult material, tobacco products, alcohol and other goods that may be subject to regulation by local, state or federal authorities, have been listed and traded on its service. The Company may be unable to prevent the sale of unlawful goods, or the sale of goods in an unlawful manner, by users of its service, and the Company may be subject to allegations of civil or criminal liability for unlawful activities carried out by users through its service. In order to 13 reduce exposure to this liability, the Company has prohibited the listing of certain items and increased the number of personnel reviewing questionable items. The Company may in the future implement other protective measures that could require spending substantial resources or may reduce revenues by discontinuing certain service offerings. Any costs incurred as a result of liability or asserted liability relating to the sale of unlawful goods or the unlawful sale of goods, could harm the Company's business. In addition, the Company has received significant and continuing media attention relating to the listing or sale of unlawful goods on the Company's website. This negative publicity could damage the Company's reputation and diminish the value of its brand name. It also could make users reluctant to continue to use the Company's services. Fraudulent Activities on the eBay Website The Company's future success will depend largely upon sellers reliably delivering and accurately representing their listed goods and buyers paying the agreed purchase price. The Company has received in the past, and anticipates that it will receive in the future, communications from users who did not receive the purchase price or the goods that were to have been exchanged. While the Company can suspend the accounts of users who fail to fulfill their delivery obligations to other users, it does not have the ability to require users to make payments or deliver goods or otherwise make users whole other than through our limited insurance program. Other than through this program, the Company does not compensate users who believe they have been defrauded by other users. The Company also periodically receives complaints from buyers as to the quality of the goods purchased. Negative publicity generated as a result of fraudulent or deceptive conduct by users of our service could damage the Company's reputation and diminish the value of the Company's brand name. The Company expects to continue to receive requests from users requesting reimbursement or threatening or commencing legal action against the Company if reimbursement is not made. This sort of litigation could be costly for the Company, divert management attention, result in increased costs of doing business, lead to adverse judgments or could otherwise harm the Company's business. See "Risk Factors--Our business may be harmed by fraudulent activities on our website." Government Inquiries On January 29, 1999, the Company received requests to produce certain records and information to the federal government relating to an investigation of possible illegal transactions in connection with its website. The Company has been informed that the inquiry includes an examination of the Company's practices with respect to these transactions. The Company has provided further information in connection with this ongoing inquiry. In order to protect the investigation, the court has ordered that no further public disclosures be made with respect to the matter. On March 24, 2000, B&B received a grand jury subpoena from the antitrust division of the Department of Justice requesting documents relating to, among other things, changes in B&B's seller's commissions and buyer's premiums and discussions, agreements or understandings with other auction houses, in each case since 1992. The Company believes this request may be related to a publicly reported criminal investigation of auction houses for price fixing. Should these or any other investigations lead to civil or criminal charges against the Company, eBay would likely be harmed by negative publicity, the costs of litigation and the diversion of management time and other negative effects even if the Company ultimately prevails. The Company's business would certainly suffer if the Company were not to prevail in any action like this. Even the process of providing records and information can be expensive, time consuming and result in the diversion of management attention. A large number of transactions occur on the eBay website. As a result, the Company believes that government regulators have received a substantial number of consumer complaints about the eBay website which, while small as a percentage of its total transactions, are large in aggregate numbers. As a result, the Company has from time to time been contacted by various federal, state and local regulatory agencies and been told that they have questions with respect to the adequacy of the steps the Company takes to protect its users 14 from fraud. For example, the City of New York--Department of Consumer Affairs received complaints from users about transactions on the eBay website. In investigating these complaints, the Department of Consumer Affairs requested information about the Company and these transactions. The Company has provided the requested information. The Company is likely to receive additional inquiries from regulatory agencies in the future, which may lead to action against the Company. The Company has responded to all inquiries from regulatory agencies by describing its current and planned antifraud efforts. If one or more of these agencies is not satisfied with the Company's response to current or future inquiries, the resultant investigations and potential fines or other penalties could harm the Company's business. The Company has recently provided information to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice in connection with an inquiry into the Company's conduct with respect to "auction aggregators" including the Company's licensing program and its lawsuit against Bidder's Edge. Should the antitrust division decide to take action against the Company, the Company would likely be harmed by negative publicity, the costs of the action, possible private antitrust lawsuits, the diversion of management time and effort and penalties the Company might suffer if the Company ultimately were not to prevail. See "Risk Factors-- Government inquiries may lead to charges or penalties." Privacy Policy The Company believes that issues relating to privacy and the use of personal information relating to Internet users are becoming increasingly important as the Internet and its commercial use grow. The Company has adopted a detailed privacy policy that outlines how eBay uses information concerning its users and the extent to which other registered eBay users may have access to this information. Users must acknowledge and agree to this policy when registering for the eBay service. The Company does not sell or rent any personally identifiable information about its users to any third party; however, the Company does disclose information to sellers and winning bidders that contains the seller's and winning bidder's name, email address and telephone number. The Company also discloses certain personally identifiable information to its subsidiaries and business partners in connection with the provision of services by these entities. The Company also will disclose customer information in its possession (other than credit card information) to a law enforcement agency or member of the Legal Buddy Program that requests this information in connection with a civil, criminal or regulatory investigation. The Company also uses information about its users for internal purposes in order to improve marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze website usage statistically, and to improve content, product offerings and website layout. eBay is a member of the TRUSTe program, a non-profit independent organization that audits websites' privacy statements and audits their adherence thereto. New and Existing Regulation of the Internet The Company is subject to the same federal, state and local laws as other companies conducting business on the Internet. Today there are relatively few laws specifically directed towards online services. However, due to the increasing popularity and use of the Internet and online services, many laws relating to the Internet are being debated at the state and federal levels and it is possible that laws and regulations will be adopted with respect to the Internet or online services. These laws and regulations could cover issues such as online contracts, user privacy, freedom of expression, pricing, fraud, content and quality of products and services, taxation, advertising, intellectual property rights and information security. Applicability to the Internet of existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, copyrights and other intellectual property issues, taxation, libel, obscenity and personal privacy is uncertain. The vast majority of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and related technologies and, as a result, do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the Internet and related technologies. Those laws that do reference the Internet, such as the recently passed Digital Millennium Copyright Act, have not yet been interpreted by the courts and their applicability and reach are therefore uncertain. In addition, numerous states, including the State of California, where the Company's headquarters are located, have regulations regarding how "auctions" may be conducted and the liability of "auctioneers" in conducting such auctions. No definitive legal determination has been made with respect to the 15 applicability of the California regulations to the Company's business to date and little precedent exists in this area. Several states are considering imposing these regulations upon the Company or its users, which could harm the business. In addition, as the nature of the products listed by the Company's users change, eBay may become subject to new regulatory restrictions. Several states have proposed legislation that would limit the uses of personal user information gathered online or require online services to establish privacy policies. The Federal Trade Commission also has recently settled proceedings regarding the manner in which personal information is collected from users and provided to third parties. Changes to existing laws or the passage of new laws intended to address these issues could directly affect the way the Company does business or could create uncertainty in the marketplace. This could reduce demand for the Company's services, increase the cost of doing business as a result of litigation costs or increased service delivery costs, or otherwise harm the business. In addition, because the Company's services are accessible worldwide, and facilitate sales of goods to users worldwide, foreign jurisdictions may claim that the Company is required to comply with their laws. As the Company expands its international activities, it will become obligated to comply with the laws of the countries in which the Company operates. Compliance may be more costly or may require the Company to change its business practices or restrict service offerings relative to those in the United States. The Company's failure to comply with foreign laws could subject the Company to penalties ranging from fines to bans on its services. Employees As of March 1, 2000, the Company had 1,212 employees. The Company has never had a work stoppage, no employees are represented under collective bargaining agreements and the Company believes its relations with its employees are good. 16 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART III Item 10: Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Officers and Directors The following table sets forth certain information regarding the executive officers and directors of the Company as of April 24, 2000: Name Age Position ------------------------ --- ------------------------------------------------- Pierre M. Omidyar....... 32 Founder, Chairman of the Board and a director Margaret C. Whitman..... 43 President, Chief Executive Officer and a director Gary F. Bengier......... 45 Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Rebecca M. Guerra....... 47 Vice President, Human Resources Michael R. Jacobson..... 45 Vice President, Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Secretary Jeffrey D. Jordan....... 41 Vice President Regionals and Services Jeffrey S. Skoll........ 35 Vice President, Strategic Planning and Analysis Brian T. Swette......... 46 Chief Operating Officer Maynard Webb....... .... 44 President of eBay Technologies Steven P. Westly........ 43 Senior Vice President, General Manager Premium and International Michael K. Wilson....... 42 Chief Scientist Philippe Bourguignon (2) 52 Director Scott D. Cook (1)....... 47 Director Robert C. Kagle (1)(2).. 44 Director Dawn G. Lepore (1)...... 46 Director Howard D. Schultz (2)... 46 Director - -------- (1) Member of the Audit Committee. (2) Member of the Compensation Committee. Pierre M. Omidyar founded eBay as a sole proprietorship in September 1995. He has been a director and Chairman of the Board since eBay's incorporation in May 1996 and also served as its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and President from inception to February 1998, November 1997 and August 1996, respectively. Prior to founding eBay, Mr. Omidyar was a developer services engineer at General Magic, a mobile communication platform company from December 1994 to July 1996. Mr. Omidyar co-founded Ink Development Corp. ("Ink") (later renamed eShop) in May 1991 and served as a software engineer there from May 1991 to September 1994. Prior to co-founding Ink, Mr. Omidyar was a developer for Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, and for other Macintosh-oriented software development companies. Mr. Omidyar holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Tufts University. Margaret C. Whitman has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay since February 1998 and a director since March 1998. From January 1997 to February 1998, she was General Manager of the Preschool Division of Hasbro Inc., a toy company. From February 1995 to December 1996, Ms. Whitman was employed by FTD, Inc., a floral products company, most recently as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director. From October 1992 to February 1995, Ms. Whitman was employed by The Stride Rite Corporation, in various capacities, including President, Stride Rite Children's Group and Executive Vice President, Product Development, Marketing & Merchandising, Keds Division. From May 1989 to October 1992, Ms. Whitman was employed by The Walt Disney Company ("Disney"), an entertainment company, most recently as Senior Vice President, Marketing, Disney Consumer Products. Before joining Disney, Ms. Whitman was at Bain & Co., a consulting firm, most recently as a Vice President. Ms. Whitman currently serves on the board of directors of Staples, Inc. Ms. Whitman holds an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School. Gary F. Bengier serves eBay as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and has been eBay's Chief Financial Officer since November 1997. From February 1997 to October 1997,Mr. Bengier was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of VXtreme, Inc. a developer of Internet video streaming products. Prior to that time, Mr. Bengier was Corporate Controller at Compass Design Automation, a publisher of electronic circuit design software, from February 1993 to February 1997. Mr. Bengier has also held senior financial positions at Kenetech Corp., an energy services company, and Qume Corp., a computer peripherals company, where he participated in numerous debt and equity financing transactions. Mr. Bengier holds a B.B.A. degree in Computer Science and Operations Research from Kent State University and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School. Rebecca M. Guerra has served as eBay's Vice President, Human Resources since June 1999. From August 1992 to June 1999, Ms. Guerra was Vice President, Human Resources of Adobe Systems, Inc. From February 1989 to August 1992, Ms. Guerra was Director of Human Resources for Mips Computer Systems (Silicon Graphics, Inc.) Ms. Guerra holds a degree in Bachelor of Science and Commerce from University of Santa Clara and a Master of Business Administration, Finance and Accounting from University of Santa Clara. Michael R. Jacobson has served as eBay's Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since August 1998. From 1986 to August 1998, Mr. Jacobson was a partner with the law firm of Cooley Godward LLP, specializing in securities law, mergers and acquisitions and other transactions. Mr. Jacobson holds an A.B. degree in Economics from Harvard College and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. Jeffrey D. Jordan has served as eBay's Vice President, Regionals and Services since September 1999. From September 1998 to September 1999, Mr. Jordan served as Chief Financial Officer for Hollywood Entertainment and President of their subsidiary, Reel.com. From September 1990 to September 1998, Mr. Jordan served in various capacities including most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Disney Store Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. Mr. Jordan holds a BA in Political Science and Psychology from Amherst College and a M.B.A. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Jeffrey S. Skoll has served as eBay's Vice President Strategic Planning and Analysis since February 1998, its President from August 1996 to February 1998 and as a director from December 1996 to March 1998. From July 1995 to July 1996, Mr. Skoll served as Channel Marketing Manager for Knight-Ridder Information Inc., an online information services company and from September 1993 to July 1995 was a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to that time, Mr. Skoll was President of Skoll Engineering, a systems consulting firm that he founded, from September 1987 to August 1993. Mr. Skoll also co-founded Micros on the Move Ltd., a computer rentals company, as an adjunct to Skoll Engineering in 1990. Mr. Skoll holds a B.a.S.C. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brian T. Swette now serves eBay as Chief Operating Officer and previously served as Senior Vice President of Marketing since August 1998. From 1981 to June 1998, Mr. Swette was employed by Pepsi-Cola Beverages, a global beverage company, in various capacities including most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer--Global Beverages. Mr. Swette serves on the board of directors of J.Crew Apparel. Mr. Swette holds a B.S. degree in Economics from Arizona State University. Maynard Webb has served as President, eBay Technologies since August 1999. From July 1998 to August 1999, Mr. Webb was Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Gateway, Inc. From February 1995 to July 1998, Mr. Webb was Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Bay Networks, Inc. From June 1991 to January 1995, Mr. Webb was Director, IT at Quantum Corporation. Mr. Webb holds a BAA degree from Florida Atlantic University. Steven P. Westly now serves eBay as Senior Vice President, General Manager Premium and International and previously served as eBay's Vice President Marketing and Business Development since August 1997. From July 1996 to August 1997, Mr. Westly was Vice President, Business Development of WhoWhere?, an Internet directory and Web-based email company. Prior to that time, Mr. Westly was Director of Sales for Netcom, an Internet service provider, from August 1995 to July 1996 and was Deputy Director of Office of Economic Development, City of San Jose, California, from April 1991 to August 1995. Before joining the Office of Economic Development, Mr. Westly served as President of Codd and Date International, a relational database consulting firm, from January 1990 to March 1992 and was the Managing Director of Bridgemere Capital, an investment banking firm, from 1987 to 1990. Mr. Westly holds a B.A. degree in History from Stanford University and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Michael K. Wilson now serves eBay as Chief Scientist and previously served as eBay's Senior Vice President Product Development and Site Operations and Vice President Product Development and Site Operations since January 1997. From October 1995 to January 1997, Mr. Wilson was Vice President of WELL Engaged, L.L.C., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Well, a software company. Prior to that time, Mr. Wilson was an engineer for daVinci Time and Space, a television company, from February 1995 to October 1995, an engineer for eShop, a software company, from February 1992 to August 1994 and a Director of Mainframe Engineering for Neuron Data, an engineering company, from 1987 to 1991. Phillipe Bourguignon has served as a director of eBay since December 1999. Mr. Bourguignon has served as Chairman of the Board of Club Mediterranee S.A., since April 1997. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Bourguignon was Chief Executive Officer of Euro Disney S.A., the parent Company of Disneyland Paris, since 1993 and Executive Vice President of the Walt Disney Company (Europe) S.A., since October 1996. Mr. Bourguignon was named President of Euro Disney in 1992, a post he held through April 1993. He joined the Walt Disney company in 1988 as head of Real Estate development. Mr. Bourguignon holds a Masters Degree in Economics at the University of Aix-en-Provence and holds a post-graduate diploma from the Institut d'Administration des Enterprises (IAE) in Paris. Scott D. Cook has served as a director of eBay since June 1998. Mr. Cook is the founder of Intuit Inc., a financial software developer. Mr. Cook has been a director of Intuit since March 1984 and its Chairman of the Board since March 1993. From March 1984 to April 1994, Mr. Cook served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Intuit. Mr. Cook also serves on the board of directors of Amazon.com. Mr. Cook holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School. Robert C. Kagle has served as a director of eBay since June 1997. Mr. Kagle has been a Member of Benchmark Capital Management Co., L.L.C. the General Partner of Benchmark Capital Partners, L.P. and Benchmark Founders' Fund, L.P., since its founding in May 1995. Mr. Kagle also has been a General Partner of Technology Venture Investors since January 1984. Mr. Kagle also serves on the board of directors of Ariba, Inc. and E-LOAN, Inc. Mr. Kagle holds a B.S. degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the General Motors Institute (renamed Kettering University in January 1998) and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Ms. Dawn G. Lepore, has served as a director of eBay since December 1999. Ms. Lepore is Vice Chairman and Chief Information Officer and a member of the Management Committee of the Charles Schwab Corporation where she has served for over sixteen years in various capacities. Prior to her appointment as Chief Information Officer at Schwab in October 1993, Ms. Lepore served as Senior Vice President of Information Technology at Scwab from May 1993 to October 1993, responsible for the development of a wide range of systems to support Schwab's growing product offerings and client base. She also led a strategic initiative for redesigning Schwab's entire technology platform. Ms. Lepore currently serves on the board of directors of the Times Mirror Company and Viador, Inc. Ms. Lepore holds a B.A. degree from Smiths College in Music. Howard D. Schultz has served as a director of eBay since June 1998. Mr. Schultz is the founder of Starbucks Corporation, a provider of gourmet coffee, and has been its Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer since its inception in 1985. From 1985 to June 1994, Mr. Schultz was also President of Starbucks. Mr. Schultz was the director of Retail Operations and Marketing for Starbucks Coffee Company, a predecessor to Starbucks from September 1982 to December 1985 and was the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Il Giornale Coffee Company, a predecessor to Starbucks, from January 1986 to July 1987. Mr. Schultz is also one of two founding members of Maveron LLC, a company providing advisory services to consumer-based businesses, and is one of two members of a limited liability company that serves as a general partner of its affiliated venture capital fund, Maveron Equity Partners, L.P. Mr. Schultz also serves on the board of directors of Drugstore.com, Inc. SIGNATURES In accordance with the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act, the Registrant has caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized. eBAY INC.
Date: April 27, 2000 Principal Executive Officer: Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer: By : /s/ Margaret C. Whitman By : /s/ Gary F. Bengier -------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Margaret C. Whitman Gary F. Bengier President and Chief Executive Officer Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Additional Directors By : /s/ Pierre M. Omidyar By : /s/ Philippe Bourguignon ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Pierre M. Omidyar Philippe Bourguignon Founder, Chairman of the Board and Director Director By : /s/ Scott D. Cook By : /s/ Robert C. Kagle ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Scott D. Cook Robert C. Kagle Director Director By : /s/ Dawn G. Lepore By : /s/ Howard D. Schultz ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- Dawn G. Lepore Howard D. Schultz Director Director
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