eBay

What eBay Actually Is

eBay runs a marketplace, not a store. It earns its money mostly from fees and advertising tied to sales between other people rather than from selling goods of its own; advertising alone brought in $544 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.[1] For the full year 2025, eBay reported revenue of $11.1 billion, up 8 percent from $10.3 billion in 2024, and GAAP net income from continuing operations of about $2.0 billion.[1] Jamie Iannone is chief executive and Peggy Alford is chief financial officer.[1] In February 2026, eBay agreed to buy Depop, a secondhand fashion marketplace, from Etsy for about $1.2 billion.[1]

In 2026 eBay also became a takeover target. GameStop, led by CEO Ryan Cohen, began building a position in eBay in February 2026, and on May 3 it made an unsolicited, nonbinding offer of $125 per share, half cash and half GameStop stock, valuing eBay at about $55.5 billion.[2] eBay's board rejected the offer on May 12, calling it neither credible nor attractive.[3] GameStop had raised its stake to 9.8 percent by July, and in August Bloomberg reported that Cohen was considering withdrawing the bid in favor of a partnership that would give GameStop seats on eBay's board. At that point GameStop had not made a final decision.[4]

The Cyberstalking Case That Defined eBay's Last Five Years

One of the most serious legal episodes in eBay's recent history has nothing to do with political donations. In August 2019, eBay's senior director of safety and security and six other members of its security team ran a harassment campaign against David and Ina Steiner, a Massachusetts couple who publish EcommerceBytes, a newsletter that covers eBay. In eBay's own admissions, senior executives were frustrated with the newsletter's tone and content, and the campaign grew out of their communications with the security director.[5] It included anonymous deliveries to the couple's home, among them a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and live insects, along with threatening messages and trips to their town to watch them. After police began investigating, the security director lied to investigators and his team deleted digital evidence.[5]

In January 2024, eBay entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice on six felony charges, including stalking, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. It admitted the facts, agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty, the most the law allows for those charges, and agreed to keep an independent compliance monitor for three years.[5] Seven former eBay employees and contractors were convicted, and the ringleader was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison.[5] The Steiners said they wanted to make sure no corporation ever feels free to crush a person's First Amendment rights.[6] Their civil lawsuit against eBay was settled in February 2026 on terms that were not disclosed. When the suit was filed, eBay said the misconduct of its former employees was wrong.[7]

Where the Money Goes

eBay's political spending is modest for a company its size and runs through conventional channels. According to OpenSecrets, contributions tied to eBay in the 2024 election cycle, from its corporate PAC plus employees and their families, totaled $359,558, and the company reported $2.05 million in federal lobbying for 2024.[8] eBay's corporate PAC raised $167,029 over the 2023-2024 cycle.[9] Of the PAC and employee money that went to congressional candidates, about 62 percent ($101,314) went to Democrats and 38 percent ($61,796) to Republicans.[10] The PAC's own largest checks went to lawmakers in both parties, including Democrats Sherrod Brown and Frank Pallone and Republicans Mike Crapo and Lindsey Graham.[10] That pattern fits access-oriented giving rather than a single ideological program, and the dollar amounts are small next to eBay's $11 billion in yearly revenue.

The Union eBay Closed

TCGplayer, a trading-card marketplace eBay bought in 2022, became home to the first eBay workers in the United States to unionize when staff at its Syracuse, New York, authentication center voted in March 2023 to join the Communications Workers of America.[11] After more than 600 days of bargaining without a first contract, eBay announced on May 22, 2025, that it would close the Syracuse center and move the work to an eBay logistics center in Louisville, Kentucky, cutting about 220 jobs.[11][12] eBay called it a difficult decision made to consolidate its operations.[12] The union called the closure an illegal attempt to break the union and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.[11] New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, speaking for the city's pension funds as eBay shareholders, criticized the move to a right-to-work state and urged eBay to bargain in good faith; in June 2025 the union won a closing agreement with improved severance.[13]

"Be for Everyone": Where eBay Has Not Retreated

eBay has kept its diversity commitment in its investor filings. Materials it filed for its 2025 annual meeting describe "Be for Everyone" as the basis of its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging, and call belonging central to the company's identity and operations.[14] Its annual report for 2025, filed in February 2026, still lists Be for Everyone among the five beliefs it calls the eBay DNA, and says the company surveys employees about their experience with diversity, inclusion, and belonging.[15] The wording has shifted: eBay's 2023 report on the subject used "diversity, equity and inclusion," while its 2025 materials use "diversity, inclusion, and belonging."[16][14] These are the company's own descriptions of its policies, reported here as what eBay says about itself rather than as outside assessments.

Taking a Side on Russia

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, eBay temporarily suspended all transactions involving Russian addresses, citing service interruptions by payment companies and shipping carriers, and said it stood with Ukraine.[17] It also waived seller fees for Ukrainian sellers, protected them from late-shipment penalties, matched employee donations to Ukraine relief, let buyers donate through its Give at Checkout feature, and removed Putin-related merchandise that was not clearly anti-Putin.[17] These were operational and stated-values decisions rather than partisan ones, but they put the company publicly on one side of a major geopolitical conflict.

Founding and Leadership

eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and grew into one of the defining e-commerce platforms of the early internet. It is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: EBAY) headquartered in San Jose, and it has since separated from PayPal.[1] Omidyar stepped back from eBay's board in 2020 and moved to the title of director emeritus.[18]

His personal political profile is one of the more notable things about the company's origins. Democracy Fund and its partner group Democracy Fund Voice, which Omidyar alone funds, have committed more than $550 million in grants since 2014 to groups the foundation describes as working to build an inclusive, multiracial democracy.[19] In 2016 he gave $250,000, in two contributions, to NeverTrump PAC,[20] a super PAC formed to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination. A Center for Public Integrity review that year found that he and his wife, Pam, had given nearly $200,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and about $150,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over the years.[21] Omidyar also launched First Look Media in 2013 with a $250 million pledge; it was the parent of the investigative outlet The Intercept, and he funded it with almost $90 million between 2013 and 2017.[22] This is the founder's personal activity, distinct from the company's own corporate political spending, and Omidyar holds no operating role at eBay today.

Corrections

Correction, September 23, 2026: An earlier version of this profile cited sources without links, and several facts were wrong. It said eBay pleaded to criminal charges in the cyberstalking case, when the company entered a deferred prosecution agreement. It described a 62/38 party split as the PAC's alone, when it combines PAC and employee giving. It dated the TCGplayer union vote to the wrong year (it was March 2023). It understated a 2016 donation to NeverTrump PAC (it was $250,000). It also included a company quote we could not verify, which has been removed. All citations now carry links. These corrections did not change the profile's rating.

Footnotes

[1] eBay Inc., "eBay Inc. reports fourth quarter and full year 2025 results," February 18, 2026. https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2025-results/

[2] GameStop Corp., letter to eBay Chairman Paul Pressler proposing to acquire eBay, May 3, 2026, filed as an exhibit to Schedule 13D, via SEC EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001065088/000119312526202465/ck0000000000-ex99_1.pdf

[3] eBay Inc., "eBay Rejects Unsolicited Proposal from GameStop," May 12, 2026, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.2, via SEC EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001065088/000155278126000322/e26249_ex99-2.htm

[4] Reuters, via Yahoo Finance, "GameStop weighing withdrawal of eBay bid, Bloomberg News reports," August 10, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/gamestop-weighing-withdrawal-ebay-bid-120023965.html

[5] U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, "eBay Inc. to Pay $3 Million in Connection with Corporate Cyberstalking Campaign Targeting Massachusetts Couple," January 11, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/ebay-inc-pay-3-million-connection-corporate-cyberstalking-campaign-targeting

[6] CBS News, "eBay to pay $3 million after couple became the target of harassment, stalking," January 11, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-charge-ebay-stalking-scandal-ina-david-steiner/

[7] Leah Willingham, Associated Press, via WBUR, "Settlement reached in a case tied to eBay's bizarre deliveries and harassment of Mass. couple," February 26, 2026. https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/02/26/massachusetts-ebay-harassment-campaign-settlement

[8] OpenSecrets, eBay Inc Profile: Summary (2024 cycle contributions and 2024 lobbying), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/ebay-inc/summary?id=D000021970

[9] OpenSecrets, PAC Profile: eBay Inc (C00342394), 2023-2024 cycle, accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/ebay-inc/C00342394/summary/2024

[10] OpenSecrets, eBay Inc Profile: Recipients (2024 cycle), accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/ebay-inc/recipients?id=D000021970

[11] Dan DiMaggio, Labor Notes, "EBay Aims to Bust Trading Card Union with 200 Layoffs," June 3, 2025. https://labornotes.org/2025/06/ebay-aims-bust-trading-card-union-200-layoffs

[12] Spectrum News Central New York, "eBay closing TCGplayer center in Syracuse, eliminating 220 jobs," May 22, 2025. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2025/05/22/ebay-closing-tcgplayer-center-in-syracuse--eliminating-220-jobs--

[13] Office of the New York City Comptroller, "Statement from New York City Comptroller Lander on eBay, TCGplayer, Communication Workers of America Local 1123 Agreement," June 12, 2025. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/statement-from-new-york-city-comptroller-lander-on-ebay-tcgplayer-communication-workers-of-america-local-1123-agreement/

[14] eBay Inc., Form DEFA14A (2025 investor presentation, "Our Commitment to Be for Everyone"), via SEC EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065088/000155278125000207/e25239_ebay-defa14a.htm

[15] eBay Inc., Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, "Culture and the eBay DNA," via SEC EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065088/000106508826000027/ebay-20251231.htm

[16] eBay Inc., "Our 7th Annual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Report: Progress and Lessons Learned," April 25, 2023. https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/our-7th-annual-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-de-and-i-report-progress-and-lessons-learned/

[17] NBC Los Angeles, "EBay Suspends Transactions to Russian Addresses," 2022. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/san-jose-based-ebay-suspends-transactions-to-russian-addresses/2846550/

[18] eBay Inc., "eBay Inc. Announces Changes to Its Board of Directors," September 2020. https://ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-inc-announces-changes-to-its-board-of-directors

[19] Democracy Fund, "About Us," accessed September 23, 2026. https://democracyfund.org/about-us

[20] OpenSecrets, NeverTrump PAC (C00610907) donors, 2015-2016 cycle, accessed September 23, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/C00610907/donors/2016

[21] John Dunbar, Michael Beckel and Carrie Levine, Center for Public Integrity, "Pierre Omidyar gives $100,000 to new anti-Trump super PAC," April 15, 2016. https://publicintegrity.org/politics/pierre-omidyar-gives-100000-to-new-anti-trump-super-pac/

[22] Columbia Journalism Review, "Layoffs at The Intercept" (tax-filing review of Omidyar's First Look Media funding). https://cjr.org/business_of_news/layoffs-the-intercept.php