Pierre Omidyar facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pierre Omidyar
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Omidyar in 2007
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Parviz Morad Omidyar
June 21, 1967 Paris, France
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| Citizenship | Iran France United States |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley (BS) |
| Occupation | Founder of eBay Founder of Honolulu Civil Beat Founder of Ulupono Initiative Founder of Omidyar Network Founder of First Look Media |
| Board member of | eBay |
| Spouse(s) | Pamela Kerr |
Pierre Morad Omidyar (born Parviz Morad Omidyar on June 21, 1967) is a very successful French-American businessman. He is known for starting eBay, a huge online marketplace. Pierre is also a software engineer and a philanthropist, which means he gives a lot of his money to help others.
He was the chairman of eBay from 1998 to 2015. In 2004, Pierre and his wife, Pamela, started the Omidyar Network. This organization helps support good causes around the world. In 2023, Forbes magazine said he was one of the richest people globally, with billions of dollars.
Pierre Omidyar has also been involved in online news. In 2010, he launched Honolulu Civil Beat, which is a news service. Later, in 2013, he announced he would create and fund First Look Media, a company focused on journalism.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Pierre Omidyar was born in Paris, France, on June 21, 1967. His parents were from Iran and had moved to France to study. His mother, Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar, is a scholar who studied languages. His father, Cyrus Omidyar, is a surgeon.
When Pierre was a child, his family moved to the United States. His father worked as a doctor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Pierre became interested in computers when he was in ninth grade at The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. He finished high school in 1984. He then went to Tufts University and later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. He earned a degree in computer science.
Starting His Career
After college, Pierre Omidyar worked for Claris, a company connected to Apple Computer. He helped improve their MacDraw software. In 1991, he helped start a company called Ink Development. This company later became an e-commerce business, which means it focused on buying and selling things online. It was renamed eShop Inc..
In 1996, Microsoft bought eShop Inc. Pierre Omidyar made about $1 million from this deal.
Creating eBay
In 1995, when Pierre was 28, he started writing computer code for a new online idea. He wanted to create a place where people could sell collectible items directly to each other through auctions. On September 4, 1995, he launched his online service called Auction Web. This service later grew into the famous auction site, eBay.
Auction Web was just one part of Pierre's personal website, eBay.com. His website also had other sections, like information about the Ebola virus.
The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer. Pierre was surprised that someone would buy a broken item. But the buyer explained that he collected broken laser pointers! Many other surprising sales followed. The business quickly grew as more and more people started listing all sorts of items to sell.
Pierre decided to make his online service a real company. He charged a small fee for each item sold, which helped pay for the website's growth. Soon, the money he made from eBay was more than his regular job salary. About nine months later, Pierre decided to work on eBay full-time.
By 1996, eBay had hosted 250,000 auctions. In just the first month of 1997, it hosted two million auctions! By the middle of that year, eBay was hosting almost 800,000 auctions every single day.
In 1997, Pierre changed the company's name from AuctionWeb to eBay. He started advertising the service widely. The name "eBay" was his second choice. He originally wanted to call it "Echo Bay" because it sounded cool. But that name was already taken by a mining company. So, he just dropped the "cho" and "ebay.com" was born.
There's a popular story that eBay was started so Pierre's fiancée could trade Pez candy dispensers. However, this story was actually made up by a public relations manager in 1997 to get media attention. This was confirmed by eBay itself.
Later Years and Ventures
Jeffrey Skoll joined eBay in 1996. In 1998, Meg Whitman became the company's president and CEO. In September 1998, eBay became a public company, which means its shares were sold to the public. This made both Pierre Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll billionaires.
In 2002, eBay bought PayPal, an online payment company. Later, in 2015, PayPal became its own separate company again. Pierre Omidyar still owns a part of PayPal.
In 2020, Pierre Omidyar stepped down from eBay's main board of directors. However, he still stays involved with the company as a "director emeritus."
News Media Businesses
In 2010, Pierre Omidyar started an online news service called Honolulu Civil Beat. This service focuses on local news in Hawaii. It was named the Best News Website in Hawaii for several years. In 2013, Honolulu Civil Beat teamed up with HuffPost to launch HuffPost Hawaii.
In 2013, after some important news leaks by Edward Snowden, Pierre announced he would create First Look Media. This is a journalism company that launched The Intercept in 2014. It features well-known journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
Film Production
Pierre Omidyar has also helped produce several films as an executive producer. These include:
- Merchants of Doubt (2014)
- Spotlight (2015)
Omidyar Group and Omidyar Network
The Omidyar Group
The Omidyar Group is a collection of different companies and projects connected to Pierre and his wife, Pam. These include their efforts in business and philanthropy. Two important parts of this group are Omidyar Network and Luminate Group.
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a special kind of investment firm. It uses the power of business to create opportunities for people to improve their lives. Pierre and Pam Omidyar started it in 2004. The organization invests in and helps grow new and creative organizations. Their goal is to bring about positive changes in economy, society, and politics.
Omidyar Network has given almost $1 billion to both for-profit companies and non-profit groups. They focus on areas like property rights, helping citizens get involved in government, education, and making financial services available to more people.
Luminate Group
Luminate Group was started in 2018. Its goal is to provide information that helps everyone, even those who are less able, to understand and influence decisions that affect their lives. It also aims to help people stand up for their rights.
Personal Life
Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela own homes in Henderson, Nevada, and Honolulu, Hawaii. As of 2019, his wealth was estimated to be around $13.1 billion.
Pierre is a follower of the Dalai Lama. In 2010, he joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in signing The Giving Pledge. This means he has promised to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime to help others. In 2019 alone, he donated about $500 million to different charities.
Awards and Honors
- Honorary doctorate from Tufts University (2011)
- 1999 EY Entrepreneur of The Year National Winner
See also
- Iranian diaspora
- Iranian Americans
- Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund
- The World's Billionaires
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