eBay 2009 Annual Report Download - page 9

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PART I
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A
of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that
involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business or financial results, new
features or services, or management strategies). You can identify these forward-looking statements by words
such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,”
“plan” and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that
could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking
statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, those discussed in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” of
this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other
financial information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, or the SEC. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any of our forward-looking
statements after the date of this report to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Given these
risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
ITEM 1: BUSINESS
Overview
eBay Inc. was formed as a sole proprietorship in September 1995 and was incorporated in California in May
1996. In April 1998, we reincorporated in Delaware, and in September 1998, we completed the initial public
offering of our common stock. Our principal executive offices are located at 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose,
California 95125, and our telephone number is (408) 376-7400. When we refer to “we,” “our,” “us” or “eBay” in
this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we mean the current Delaware corporation (eBay Inc.) and its California
predecessor, as well as all of its consolidated subsidiaries. When we refer to “eBay.com,” we mean the online
marketplace located at www.ebay.com and its localized counterparts. When we refer to “PayPal,” we mean the
online payments platform located at www.paypal.com and its localized counterparts. When we refer to “Skype,”
we mean the Internet communications offerings provided by Skype Technologies S.A., which we sold in
November 2009.
Our purpose is to pioneer new communities around the world built on commerce, sustained by trust and
inspired by opportunity. We provide online marketplaces for the sale of goods and services as well as other
online commerce, or ecommerce, platforms and online payment solutions to a diverse community of individuals
and businesses.
For most of fiscal 2009, we operated three primary business segments: Marketplaces, Payments and
Communications. Our Marketplaces segment provides the infrastructure to enable global online commerce on a
variety of platforms, including the eBay.com platform and our other online platforms, such as our online
classifieds businesses, our secondary tickets marketplace (StubHub), our online shopping comparison website
(Shopping.com) and our apartment listing service platform (Rent.com), as well as our fixed price media
marketplace (Half.com). Our Payments segment is comprised of our online payment solutions PayPal and Bill
Me Later. Our Communications segment, which consisted of Skype, enabled Internet communications between
Skype users and provided low-cost connectivity to traditional fixed-line and mobile telephones. On
November 19, 2009, we completed the sale of Skype to an investor group (please see further discussion under the
heading “Communications” below). Following the completion of the sale of Skype, we operated and, continue to
operate, two primary business segments: Marketplaces and Payments.
We generate two types of net revenues: net transaction revenues and marketing services and other revenues.
Our net transaction revenues are derived principally from listing fees and final value fees (which are fees payable
on transactions completed on our Marketplaces trading platforms), fees paid by merchants for payment
processing services and, until the sale of Skype on November 19, 2009, fees charged to users to connect Skype’s
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