Business

As PayPal Split Looms, eBay Plans to Think Small

Published

11 years ago

April 23, 2015

This July 16, 2013 file photo shows an eBay sign at eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. EBay plans to grow by thinking small as it prepares for life apart from PayPal. CEO John Donahoe said Wednesday, April 22, 2015, the company says it is moving toward the spinoff with “clarity and speed.” (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

MAE ANDERSON, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — EBay plans to grow by thinking small as it prepares for life apart from PayPal.

The company says it is focusing on getting more people, as well as small- to mid-size businesses, to buy and sell items on its popular online marketplace.

The effort comes as it attempts to address investor concerns about how it will fare later this year after it spins off its PayPal payments division, which has long been EBay’s fastest-growing segment.

CEO John Donahoe said Wednesday the company is moving toward the spinoff with “clarity and speed.”

EBay’s first-quarter earnings may have mitigated investors’ concern somewhat. The results beat expectations and revenue, excluding the impact of the stronger dollar, grew in both segments. A stronger dollar cuts into revenue generated overseas when it’s translated back into dollars.

“We are deeply committed to setting up eBay and PayPal to succeed and to deliver sustainable value to our shareholders,” Donahoe said.

The e-commerce company is seeking to reinvigorate its marketplace business, which includes the e-commerce arm of eBay. It stumbled last year when it had to deal with a change in Google’s algorithms that made eBay products come up in search results less often. It was also hit by a data breach that led to all its users being required to change their password.

For the quarter ending March 31, marketplaces revenue fell 4 percent to $2.07 billion, hurt by the stronger dollar. But the company said it sees signs of stabilization in active buyers and gross merchandise volume, or the total amount of goods sold, excluding the impact of the stronger dollar.

“Our quarter one results are encouraging,” said Devin Wenig, who will be CEO of eBay after the spinoff, in a call with investors. “We are certainly not ready to declare victory over last year’s (Google algorithm) and password reset challenges but we are making progress.”

Wenig said eBay will focus on growing its 25 million sellers and 157 million active buyers by focusing on small- and medium-size merchants that make of 70 percent of the global retail market. He said eBay is a “partner, not a competitor,” to those businesses, perhaps a nod to online retailer Amazon, which is eBay’s biggest competitor in the third-party seller area.

Individual consumers are another focus.

“There is $100 billion of value trapped in people’s closets and garages, and that’s just in the U.S.,” Wenig said.

Earlier this month EBay and PayPal agreed in an SEC filing that PayPal will still process at least 80 percent of transactions on eBay after the splitoff, even though both can work with new partners. The agreement lasts five years with a one-year transition period. The companies will continue to share data and will not build competing products during the agreement period.

Shares of eBay Inc., which is based in San Jose, California, rose $3.01, or 5.3 percent, to $59.76 in aftermarket trading. The stock had been up about 1 percent since the beginning of the year.

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 24 – 30, 2026

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July 5, 2026

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 24 – 30, 2026

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June 26, 2026

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At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

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2 weeks ago

June 24, 2026

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Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.