eBay shareholders, board members and executives gathered at the Wynn Resort Hotel in Las Vegas Tuesday morning for the company's annual shareholders meeting. Business to be conducted included the election of directors; consideration of an amendment to eBay's equity incentive plan; ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent auditors; and other business. Full information about the issues can be found on the Securities and Exchange (SEC) website (http://www.sec.gov).
Over seventy-five people, including executives, board members employees and members of the media were on hand.
After the formal portion of the meeting concluded, eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave a presentation to shareholders. She reviewed eBay's evolution and showed videos from each of the core businesses. For the marketplaces, she said the way eBay will continue to grow is through worldclass marketing; to improve the buyer/seller value proposition; and to continue to accelerate product and technical innovation.
Whitman's strategy is to expand beyond the core to "tailored shopping experiences," such as eBay Express. eBay is also exploring new monetization models and used Shopping.com's lead generation model as an example.
Whitman said eBay is the number one ecommerce franchise globally. In what sounded like a dig at Google, Whitman said, we are focused on this - focus really matters. This is what we do.
Next, Whitman discussed eBay's online payment service, PayPal. Key opportunities include:
- Defacto payment service on every marketplace - includes Shopping.com
- Global merchant services
- Expand globally
- Move beyond Internet payments
New initiatives involve buyer credit and PayPal Mobile that offer great long-term potential, Whitman said.
Finally, Whitman addressed its new communications business, Skype. The business is to enable the world's communications, both one-to-one, many-to-many. She called it the fasted-adopted property they've ever seen.
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