EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1065088
Filing Year: 2022
Filename: 1065088_10-K_2022_0001065088-22-000006.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
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 2025 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, California, 95125, and our telephone number is (408) 376-7008. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, when we refer to “we,” “our,” “us,” or “eBay” in this annual report on Form 10-K, we mean eBay Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
eBay is a global commerce leader through our Marketplace platforms which connect millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. The platforms include our online marketplace located at www.ebay.com and its localized counterparts, including off-platform businesses in Japan and Turkey, as well as eBay’s suite of mobile apps. Our platforms are accessible through an online experience (e.g. desktop and laptop computers), iOS and Android mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets) and our application programming interfaces (“APIs,” platform access for third party software developers).
Notably, on June 24 , 2021, we completed the sale of our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”) for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and 540 million Adevinta shares, and on November 18, 2021, eBay completed the sale of approximately 135 million shares of Adevinta to Astinlux Finco S.a.r.l. (“Permira”) for approximately $2.3 billion in cash. Further, on November 14, 2021, we completed the sale of 80.01% of our ownership stake in eBay Korea LLC to E-mart Inc. (“Emart”) for approximately $3.0 billion of gross cash proceeds subject to certain adjustments.
Our Strategy
As a global commerce leader and third-party marketplace, our technologies and services are designed to provide buyers choice and a breadth of relevant inventory from around the globe, and to enable sellers’ access to eBay’s 147 million buyers worldwide. Our business model and pricing are designed so that our business is successful when our sellers are successful. We earn revenue primarily through fees collected on paid sales, payment processing and first-party advertising.
eBay’s strategy is to leverage technology to enhance the marketplace experience for our customers to drive growth in Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”), while increasing the rate of revenue growth through our managed payments and advertising initiatives and delivering healthy operating margins. In 2020, we embarked on a multi-year journey to build more compelling category experiences for enthusiastic consumers, to become the partner of choice for sellers and to strengthen trust in relationships with buyers on our platforms. We derived a majority of GMV in 2021 from the following product categories - parts & accessories, consumer electronics and home & garden.
During 2021, we completed the migration of eBay’s managed payments in all markets, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Through managed payments, we are able to provide a frictionless experience for current and next-generation customers, consistent with today’s retail standards. We offer buyers more flexibility and choice in how they’d like to pay and offer sellers a more streamlined way to run their businesses.
Our advertising business remains focused on growing our Promoted Listings offerings (our first-party advertising products) while reducing non-strategic, third-party advertising. In 2021, we launched three new products: Promoted Listings Express (a cost-per-acquisition product for auction listings), Promoted Listings Advanced (a cost-per-click product) and External Promoted Listings (an off-platform advertising product). These new products complement our existing first-party advertising offering, Promoted Listings Standard (a cost-per-acquisition product for fixed-priced listings). Through our portfolio of Promoted Listings offerings, we are providing sellers with data-driven recommendations to optimize their conversion and drive velocity, while testing and building more technology features to drive growth, position eBay as the seller’s platform of choice and surface relevant inventory to buyers.
Our Customer Offerings
We provide a number of features for our sellers and buyers that align with our approach to becoming the partner of choice for sellers and building life-long, trusted buyer relationships. These offerings are designed to build trust and confidence on our platform and drive GMV.
To become the partner of choice for sellers, eBay continuously invests in technology to enhance the selling experience and products to grow the seller tools ecosystem. The new unified listing experience offers an intuitive and cohesive design across all platforms - desktop, mobile and app - simplifying the listing flow and enhancing seller benefits. Using computer vision technology, we launched a tool that allows sellers to scan select trading cards using eBay’s mobile apps to create a listing in less time. eBay expanded the Promoted Listings offerings to make it easier for sellers to drive velocity. We also launched personalized tools, such as coded coupons, to support a richer online seller experience. Coded coupons make it possible for sellers to personalize and distribute offers to their target customers, and 6.2 million unique buyers have made purchases using coded coupons and 69 thousand sellers have made sales with the use of coded coupons since launching in early 2021. In addition, all Seller Hub users are able to access Terapeak Product Research for free across a number of our markets - U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Canada - providing pricing insights and listing quality reports without any barriers.
In order to further strengthen our buyers’ confidence and trust in our services, we offer “eBay Money Back Guarantee,” which allows buyers to receive their money back if the item they ordered does not arrive, is faulty or damaged or does not match the listing. eBay Money Back Guarantee covers most items purchased on the eBay platform in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and Spain through a qualifying payment method. In 2021, eBay expanded "Authenticity Guarantee," an independent authentication service, to more luxury categories and more markets. We now authenticate watches sold over $2,000 in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany; select sneakers sold over $100 in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada; and select handbags sold over $500 in the U.S. Additionally, to meet consumer demand for top products, we expanded our eBay Refurbished offering, a dedicated destination that brings inventory from pre-selected brands and top rated sellers with standardized condition grading.
eBay also invests in product experiences that delight our customers and enhance the buying experience for our enthusiasts. Our Collection tool allows enthusiasts to view, manage and to track the value of their trading card collection. eBay has increased the tools available for our Motors enthusiasts by expanding the My Garage feature to Canada, Italy, France and Spain and adding a motorcycle parts finder to the fitment shopping experience. In the U.S., we added our entire parts and accessories inventory to the eBay Motors app, making it easier to find the most relevant inventory.
Our Impact and Responsibility
eBay’s purpose is to empower people and create economic opportunity for all through our technology for our global community of users. Every day, people build businesses on our platforms. With a low cost of entry for sellers, we offer a highly accessible way for all types of users to interact in a global marketplace that’s inclusive and connects people of all backgrounds. Accordingly, we prioritize our corporate responsibility efforts to impact the areas of economic empowerment and sustainable commerce. Key economic programs include eBay for Charity, the eBay Foundation and our small business enablement efforts, such as our Up & Running Grants program.
eBay for Charity empowers buyers and sellers to support charities around the world. In 2021, eBay for Charity matched donations made to Direct Relief and partnered with OXFAM, Make a Wish Foundation, Stop AAPI Hate and The Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2021, more than $145 million was raised by buyers and sellers to support charities via eBay for Charity.
The eBay Foundation helps to build economically vibrant and thriving communities. During 2021, the eBay Foundation granted over $14 million to support historically excluded entrepreneurs and our employee gift-matching program. The eBay Foundation also increased our employee gift-matching annual cap to $10,000 per employee, per year. To date, the eBay Foundation has awarded more than $76 million to more than 1,800 nonprofits.
In 2021, eBay committed to invest $25 million in the Clear Vision Impact Fund to bolster small- and medium-sized minority-owned businesses that support historically under-served communities.
Recommerce has been an integral part of eBay’s purpose since the Company was founded in 1995. As a pioneer of the circular economy, eBay has created a space where people can buy and sell pre-owned goods. This helps preserve the world’s natural resources and reduces the Company’s carbon footprint by saving on the water and energy typically used in producing new goods and saves them from being sent to landfills.
eBay continued its work to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025 and signed its second virtual power purchase agreement in 2021. In our continued efforts to address climate change, we announced an updated carbon reduction goal that has been approved by the Science Based Target initiative: eBay commits to reduce its own (scope 1 and scope 2) emissions 90% by 2030 from a 2019 base year and to reduce value chain (scope 3) emissions from downstream transportation and distribution by 20% in the same timeframe. We will also be carbon neutral for our scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of 2021 and each year moving forward. eBay was ranked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership National Top 100 and Top 30 Tech & Telecom for the second year. Additionally, we strive to integrate best practices in our offices and data center operations and to continually reduce our environmental footprint. This year, eBay was also recognized for its commitment to sustainability and responsible business by its inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World and North American Indices for the third straight year. eBay also scored an A- on the CDP Climate Change questionnaire.
Financial Information
We measure our footprint in our addressable market according to GMV. GMV consists of the total value of all paid transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period inclusive of shipping fees and taxes. In 2021, we generated $87 billion in GMV, of which approximately 54 percent was generated outside the U.S. We believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of paid transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period.
At the end of 2021, eBay had 147 million active buyers and 17 million sellers. In 2021, we had approximately 1.5 billion live listings globally. The term “active buyer” means, as of any date, all buyer accounts that paid for a transaction on our platforms within the previous 12-month period. Buyers may register more than once and, as a result, may have more than one account. “Sellers” include consumer-to-consumer (“C2C”) and business-to-consumer (“B2C”) sellers that have received payment for a transaction on our platforms within the previous 12-month period.
We generate revenue primarily from the transactions we successfully enable, including monetization of managed payments and first-party advertising and through marketing services. The majority of our revenue comes from a take rate on the GMV of transactions paid on our platforms. We define “take rate” as net transaction revenues divided by GMV.
Our platforms are designed to enable our buyers and sellers to leverage our economies of scale and capital investments, such as in sales and marketing, mobile, customer acquisition, technology innovation and customer service.
Notable Business Transactions in 2021 and 2020
We regularly review and manage our investments to ensure they support eBay’s strategic direction and complement our disciplined approach to value creation, profitability and capital allocation. eBay completed the sale of its Classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and 540 million Adevinta shares in the second quarter of 2021, then completed the sale of approximately 135 million shares of our Adevinta stake to Permira for approximately $2.3 billion in cash in the fourth quarter of 2021. Additionally, we completed the sale of 80.01% of our ownership stake in eBay Korea LLC to E-mart for approximately $3.0 billion of gross cash proceeds, subject to certain adjustments in the fourth quarter of 2021.
In the first quarter of 2020, we completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments.
Competition
We encounter vigorous competition in our business from numerous sources. Our users can list, sell, buy, and pay for similar items through a variety of competing online, mobile and offline channels. These include, but are not limited to, retailers, distributors, liquidators, import and export companies, auctioneers, catalog and mail-order companies, directories, search engines, commerce participants (consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business), shopping channels and networks. As our product offerings continue to broaden into new categories of items and new commerce formats, we expect to face additional competition from other online, mobile and offline channels for those new offerings. We compete on the basis of price, product selection and services, and global scale.
For more information regarding competitive factors impacting our business, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business” and “We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business.”
Government Regulation
Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. In particular, we are subject to laws and regulations that affect the ecommerce industry in many countries where we operate.
With two additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2021, some buyers across the U.S. encountered sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted Internet sales tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Spain in 2021, and we are complying with the legislation. Our business will also be required to increase payments reporting requirements for U.S. sellers as a result of federal legislation. Starting on January 1, 2022, all businesses that process payments are required to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales, a decrease from the previous reporting threshold of $20,000 and 200 transactions. Form 1099-Ks for the new thresholds will be issued in January 2023. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements, or reporting, could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.
Legislation requiring increased seller information collection, verification and disclosure for online marketplaces was considered in a number of states and passed into law in Arkansas in 2021. Federal legislation is also being considered by Congress. Increased seller mandates could create additional burdens for sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.
For more information regarding regulatory risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight, which could adversely impact our business” and “Our business and our sellers and buyers may be subject to sales and other tax regimes in various jurisdictions, which may harm our business.”
Seasonality
We expect transaction activity patterns on our platforms to mirror general consumer buying patterns. Please see the additional information in “Item 7: Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” under the caption “Seasonality.”
Technology
The eBay Marketplace uses a combination of proprietary technologies and services as well as technologies and services provided by others. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, buyer, seller and developer tools and transaction processing, database and network applications that help enable our users to reliably and securely complete transactions on our sites. Our technology infrastructure simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our infrastructure has been designed around industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences.
In support of our commitment to innovation and a better customer experience, we have been on a multi-year evolution to modernize our marketplace. Through technologies like artificial intelligence, we are anticipating the needs of buyers, sellers and developers, empowering entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, and making the platform more accessible to everyone. We aim to create highly personalized and inspiring shopping experiences powered by advanced technologies.
For information regarding technology-related risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Our business is subject to online security risks, including security breaches and cyberattacks,” “Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of or degradation in the performance of our websites, applications, products or services could harm our business” and “Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.”
Intellectual Property
We regard the protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks (particularly those covering the eBay name), patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress and trade secrets as critical to our success. We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights in products and services. We routinely enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and nondisclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information.
We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks and service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, we have filed U.S. and international patent applications covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology. Effective trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress and trade secret protection is typically expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming and may not be successful.
We have registered our core brands as trademarks and domain names in the U.S. and a large number of other jurisdictions and have in place an active program to continue to secure trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in markets of interest. If we are unable to register or protect our trademarks or domain names, we could be adversely affected in any jurisdiction in which our trademarks or domain names are not registered or protected. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others.
From time to time, third parties have claimed - and others will likely claim in the future - that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We are typically involved in a number of such legal proceedings at any time. Please see the information in “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” and in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “The listing or sale by our users of certain items, including items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, such as pirated or counterfeit items, illegal items or items used in an illegal manner may harm our business,” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”
Human Capital Management
As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 10,800 people globally. Approximately 6,300 of our employees were located in the U.S. eBay has robust people-focused programs to support and retain our employees globally and to attract our future employees. Our recruitment, development, compensation and benefits and wellness programs are designed to reflect our values and our goal to make eBay competitive in the market for talent and a place that is welcoming and inclusive. eBay’s management is focused on delivering programs that develop and support our people and connect them with our customers, our community, and each other.
Culture
The heart of our culture is Our DNA, a framework launched in 2020 to link all employees to our purpose and beliefs.
Our Purpose: We connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all
Our Beliefs: These beliefs reflect our culture at its best and our shared desire to be part of a company with a productive, fun way of working where we deliver the best we can for ourselves as employees and for our customers.
•Empower our community
•Innovate boldly
•Deliver with impact
•Be for everyone
•Act with integrity
In 2021, we continued to integrate Our DNA throughout our people programs and processes, including performance management, recruiting and hiring, new employee onboarding and training for individuals and managers. The company’s Employee Code of Conduct has been rewritten to align to our DNA beliefs language.
Pandemic Response
We continue to monitor and adapt to workplace changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. eBay continues to support our people who are predominantly working remotely by providing equipment, systems and resources for remote connection, including for our customer experience team members who are continuing to work from home in most cases. We also increased work flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities and continued to provide back-up in-home child and adult care in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany and Ireland. eBay has continually engaged with our people to support physical and mental health for them and their families through online wellness resources, webinars, telehealth access and expansion of company-paid mental health support as well as additional training for managers and peers to support mental health. As we continued to hire employees throughout the pandemic, we have reimagined the employee onboarding experience. We have also had the opportunity to welcome employees back to the office on a voluntary basis, where it is safe to do so, and introduced new hybrid habits to enable collaboration in a hybrid environment.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion continues to focus on three strategic areas - workforce, workplace and marketplace. Equity remains at the forefront of all we do to hire, grow, and keep top talent, enhance corporate performance, and foster a welcoming and inclusive place to work, learn and grow. We continue efforts to enhance our processes, while leveraging deepened and actionable data insights, coupled with updated learning and development practices as well as the planned design and implementation of a new governance model to ensure that we drive shared accountability throughout the organization. Our Communities of Inclusion welcome and connect eBay employees all over the world to help us build and nurture employees, allies and external communities. They host events and forums to connect employees to groups organized around age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, religion, military status, parental status and sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. We are currently preparing our sixth Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion report for publication in the second quarter of 2022.
Acting with Integrity
We maintained our commitment to ethics and acting with integrity in 2021. We took big and small actions to ensure that we are open, honest, ethical and authentic with ongoing trainings, quarterly “tone from the top” engagements between leaders with their employees and daily ethics contests during Ethics and Compliance Week.
Parental Leave
In addition to competitive pay and benefits, eBay offers additional parental time off beyond what is required by law in the U.S. and in most countries where we operate. This benefit is offered for parents welcoming a new child into the family whether by giving birth, adopting or welcoming a child through surrogacy. This is an important demonstration of our commitment to working parents and their families.
Employee Voice & Values
In addition to multiple channels for sharing feedback, we also regularly survey our employees on trust and engagement, their experience with diversity, equity and inclusion, ethics and integrity, and this year regarding their thoughts on returning to the office. Our employees highly value eBay’s approach to Impact and Responsibility and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion discussed earlier in the report. Employees are proud of eBay’s efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and the sustainable commerce that is enabled by our platform. These commitments are core to our business and they positively impact recruitment, engagement and retention.
Available Information
Our Internet address is www.ebay.com. Our investor relations website is located at investors.ebayinc.com. We make available free of charge on our investor relations website under the heading “Financial Information - SEC Filings” our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with (or furnished to) the SEC at www.sec.gov.
We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs on our investor relations website. Company sustainability information for investors is available on our investor relations website under the heading “ESG Investors.” Corporate governance information, including our governance guidelines for our Board of Directors (“Board”), Board committee charters and code of conduct, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Corporate Governance.”
The contents of our websites and webcasts and information that can be accessed through our websites and webcasts are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with (or furnish to) the SEC, and any references to our websites and webcasts are intended to be inactive textual references only.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Item 1A: RISK FACTORS
Risk Factors Summary:
The summary of risks below provides an overview of the principal risks we are exposed to in the normal course of our business activities:
•Our operating and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, as well as the trading price of our common stock and debt securities.
•Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business.
•The global COVID-19 pandemic could harm our business and results of operations.
•Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could negatively impact our financial results.
•Our international operations and engagement in cross-border trade are subject to risks, which could harm our business.
•Our business may be adversely affected by geopolitical events, natural disasters, seasonal factors and similar factors.
•If we cannot keep pace with rapid technological developments or continue to innovate and create new initiatives to provide new programs, products and services, the use of our products and our revenues could decline.
•Changes to our programs to protect buyers and sellers could increase our costs and loss rate, and failure to manage such programs effectively can result in harm to our reputation.
•Development of our payments system requires ongoing investment, is subject to evolving laws, regulations, rules, and standards, and involves risk, including risks related to our dependence on third-party providers.
•We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.
•Failure to deal effectively with fraudulent activities on our platforms would increase our loss rate and harm our business, and could severely diminish merchant and consumer confidence in and use of our services.
•Our business is subject to online security risks, including security breaches and cyberattacks.
•Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of or degradation in the performance of our websites, applications, products or services could harm our business.
•We may not be able to attract, retain, and develop the highly skilled employees and senior management that we need to support our business.
•Problems with or price increases by third parties who provide services to us or to our sellers could harm our business.
•Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight, which could adversely impact our business.
•Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.
•We are regularly subject to general litigation, regulatory disputes, and government inquiries.
•We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business
•The listing or sale by our users of certain items, including items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, illegal items or items used in an illegal manner may harm our business.
•We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our services.
•Fluctuations in interest rates could adversely impact our financial results.
•We have substantial indebtedness, and we may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future, and we may not generate sufficient cash flow from our business to service our indebtedness.
•Our business and our sellers and buyers may be subject to sales and other tax regimes in various jurisdictions, which may harm our business.
•Acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and strategic investments could result in operating difficulties and could harm our business.
•We could incur significant liability if the Distribution of PayPal is determined to be a taxable transaction.
•We may be exposed to claims and liabilities as a result of the Distribution of PayPal.
Risk Factors:
You should carefully review the following discussion of the risks that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, as well as our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and the other information appearing in this report, for important information regarding risks that affect us. Current global economic events and conditions may amplify many of these risks. These risks are not the only risks that may affect us. Additional risks that we are not aware of or do not believe are material at the time of this filing may also become important factors that adversely affect our business.
Business, Economic, Market and Operating Risks
Our operating and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, as well as the trading price of our common stock and debt securities.
Our operating and financial results have varied on a quarterly basis during our operating history and may continue to fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of factors, including as a result of the following risks and other risks set forth in this “Risk Factors” section.
•our ability to convert visits into sales for our sellers;
•the amount and timing of expenses;
•our success in attracting and retaining sellers and buyers;
•changes in consumer discretionary spending trends, including shifts in interests away from any of our major categories;
•our success in executing on our strategy and the impact of any changes in our strategy;
•the timing and success of product launches, including new services and features we may introduce;
•the success of our marketing efforts; and
•the impact of competitive developments and our response to those developments.
In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our business, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance. It is difficult for us to forecast the level or source of our revenues or earnings (loss) accurately, particularly given that substantially all of our net revenues each quarter come from transactions involving sales during that quarter. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting revenues, it is also difficult to forecast expenses as a percentage of net revenues. Quarterly and annual expenses as a percentage of net revenues reflected in our consolidated financial statements may be significantly different from historical or projected percentages. Because our business model is dependent upon consumer spending, our results of operations are sensitive to changes in or uncertainty about macro-economic conditions. Our buyers may in the future have less capacity for discretionary purchases and may reduce their purchases from our sellers as a result of various factors, including job losses, inflation, higher taxes, reduced access to credit, changes in federal economic policy, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent international trade disputes.
Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business.
The businesses and markets in which we operate are intensely competitive. We currently and potentially compete with a wide variety of online and offline companies providing goods and services to consumers and merchants, a number of which have significant resources, large user communities and well-established brands. The Internet and mobile networks provide new, rapidly evolving and intensely competitive channels for the sale of all types of goods and services. We compete in two-sided markets, and must attract both buyers and sellers to use our platforms. Consumers who purchase or sell goods and services through us have more and more alternatives, and merchants have more channels to reach consumers. We expect competition to continue to intensify. The barriers to entry into these channels can be low, and businesses can easily launch online sites or mobile platforms and applications at nominal cost by using commercially available software or partnering with any of a number of successful ecommerce, search, advertising or social companies. As we respond to changes in the competitive environment, we may, from time to time, make pricing, service, policy or marketing decisions or acquisitions that may be controversial with and lead to dissatisfaction among sellers, which could reduce activity on our platform and harm our reputation and profitability.
We face increased competitive pressure online and offline. In particular, the competitive norm for, and the expected level of service from, ecommerce and mobile commerce has significantly increased due to, among other factors, improved user experience, greater ease of buying goods, lower (or no) shipping costs, faster shipping times and more favorable return policies. In addition, certain platform businesses, such as Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, many of whom are larger than us or have greater capitalization, have a dominant and secure position in other industries or certain significant markets, and offer other goods and services to consumers and merchants that we do not offer. If we are unable to change our products, offerings and services in ways that reflect the changing demands of ecommerce and mobile commerce marketplaces, or if products offered through eBay are not available for purchase where the consumers shop, particularly the higher growth of sales of fixed-price items and higher expected service levels (some of which depend on services provided by sellers on our platforms), or compete effectively with and adapt to changes in larger platform businesses, our business and reputation will suffer.
Competitors with other revenue sources may also be able to devote more resources to marketing and promotional campaigns and buyer acquisition, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote more resources to website, mobile platforms and applications and systems development than we can. Other competitors may offer or continue to offer faster and/or free shipping, delivery on Sunday, same-day delivery, favorable return policies or other transaction-related services which improve the user experience on their sites and which could be impractical or inefficient for our sellers to match. Competitors may be more narrowly focused on a particular type of goods and create a compelling community, be able to innovate faster and more efficiently, and new technologies may increase the competitive pressures by enabling competitors to offer more efficient or lower-cost services.
Some of our competitors control other products and services that are important to our success, including credit card interchange, Internet search, and mobile operating systems. Such competitors could manipulate pricing, availability, terms or operation of service related to their products and services in a manner that impacts our competitive offerings. For example, Google, which operates a shopping platform service, has from time to time made changes to its search algorithms that reduced the amount of search traffic directed to us from searches on Google. If we are unable to use or adapt to operational changes in such services, we may face higher costs for such services, face integration or technological barriers or lose customers, which could cause our business to suffer.
Consumers who might use our sites to buy goods have a wide variety of alternatives, including traditional department, warehouse, boutique, discount and general merchandise stores (as well as the online and mobile operations of these traditional retailers), online retailers and their related mobile offerings, online and offline aggregation and classified services, social media platforms and other shopping channels, such as offline and online home shopping networks. In the United States, these include, but are not limited to, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Etsy, StockX, Shopify, Wayfair, TheRealReal, Overstock.com and Rakuten, among others. In addition, consumers have a large number of online and offline channels focused on one or more of the categories of products offered on our site.
Consumers also can turn to many companies that offer a variety of services that provide other channels for buyers to find and buy items from sellers of all sizes, including social media, online aggregation and classifieds platforms, such as websites operated by Adevinta or Naspers Limited and others such as craigslist, Oodle.com and Facebook. Consumers also can turn to shopping-comparison sites, such as Google Shopping, or social networks that enable purchases such as Pinterest and Facebook. In certain markets, our fixed-price listing and traditional auction-style listing formats increasingly are being challenged by other formats, such as classifieds. We use product search engines and paid search advertising to help users find our sites, but these services also have the potential to divert users to other online shopping destinations. Consumers may choose to search for products and services with a horizontal search engine or shopping comparison website, and such sites may also send users to other shopping destinations. In addition, sellers are increasingly utilizing multiple sales channels, including the acquisition of new customers by paying for search-related advertisements on horizontal search engine sites, such as Google, Naver and Baidu.
Consumers and merchants who might use our sites to sell goods also have many alternatives, including general ecommerce sites, such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Zalando, and more specialized sites, such as Etsy. Our international sites also compete for sellers with general and specialized ecommerce sites. Sellers may also choose to sell their goods through other channels, such as multi-channel services like Shopify or classifieds platforms. Consumers and merchants also can create and sell through their own sites, and may choose to purchase online advertising instead of using our services. We generate a substantial amount of our revenue from our Promoted Listings (a first-party advertising offering) and, to a lesser extent, third-party advertising. To sustain or increase our advertising revenue, we must continue to provide customers with compelling advertising products to maintain or
increase the amount of advertising purchased through our platform. If we are unable to compete effectively for advertising spend, our business and operating results could be harmed. In some countries, there are online sites that have larger customer bases and greater brand recognition, as well as competitors that may have a better understanding of local culture and commerce. We may increasingly compete with local competitors in developing countries that have unique advantages, such as a greater ability to operate under local regulatory authorities.
In addition, certain manufacturers may limit or cease distribution of their products through online channels, such as our sites. Manufacturers may attempt to use contractual obligations or existing or future government regulation to prohibit or limit ecommerce in certain categories of goods or services. Manufacturers may also attempt to enforce minimum resale price maintenance or minimum advertised price arrangements to prevent distributors from selling on our platforms or on the Internet generally, or drive distributors to sell at prices that would make us less attractive relative to other alternatives. The adoption by those or other policies could adversely affect our results of operations and result in loss of market share and diminished value of our brands.
The principal competitive factors for us include the following:
•ability to attract, retain and engage buyers and sellers;
•volume of transactions and price and selection of goods;
•trust in the seller and the transaction;
•customer service;
•brand recognition;
•community cohesion, interaction and size;
•website, mobile platform and application ease-of-use and accessibility;
•system reliability and security;
•reliability of delivery and payment, including customer preference for fast delivery and free shipping and returns;
•level of service fees; and
•quality of search tools.
We may be unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors. Some current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, larger customer bases and greater brand recognition in other business and Internet sectors than we do.
The global COVID-19 pandemic could harm our business and results of operations.
The global spread of COVID-19 variants and related measures to contain its spread (such as government mandated business closures and shelter in-place guidelines) have created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity in the future will depend on numerous evolving factors that we cannot predict, including the duration and scope of the pandemic; any resurgence of the pandemic; the availability and distribution of effective treatments and vaccines; governmental, business and individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on national and global economic activity, unemployment levels and financial markets, including the possibility of a national or global recession; the potential for shipping difficulties, including slowed deliveries from sellers to their customers; and the ability of consumers to pay for products. The COVID-19 pandemic has generally resulted in a decrease in consumer spending, which could have an adverse impact on our sellers through reduced consumer demand for their products and availability of inventory, which could in turn negatively impact the demand for use of our platforms. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to require employees to work remotely for an extended period of time, which could negatively impact our business and harm productivity and collaboration. If there is a prolonged impact of COVID-19, it could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, perhaps materially. The future impact of COVID-19 and these containment measures cannot be predicted with certainty and may increase our borrowing costs and other costs of capital and otherwise adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and we cannot assure that we will have access to external financing at times and on terms we consider acceptable, or at all, or that we will not experience other liquidity issues going forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the related measures to contain its spread did not adversely affect our consolidated results of operations. Initially, our Marketplace platforms experienced improved traffic and buyer acquisition due to the ongoing impact of mobility restrictions taken globally to contain the spread of COVID-19 and changes in consumer behaviors that have resulted in more online shopping. As restrictions have loosened and
mobility increases, we may experience lower traffic and buyer acquisition, and the impacts seen may continue to create volatility in our results and a wider range of outcomes as consumer behaviors and mobility restrictions continue to evolve.
We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which could negatively impact our financial results.
Because we generate approximately half of our revenues outside the United States but report our financial results in U.S. dollars, our financial results are impacted by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, or foreign exchange rates. The results of operations of many of our internationally focused platforms are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations as the financial results of the applicable subsidiaries are translated from the local currency into U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes.
While from time to time we enter into transactions to hedge portions of our foreign currency translation exposure, it is impossible to predict or eliminate the effects of this exposure. Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates could significantly impact our financial results, which may have a significant impact on the trading price of our common stock and debt securities.
Our international operations and engagement in cross-border trade are subject to risks, which could harm our business.
Our international businesses, especially in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, and cross-border business from greater China, have generated a majority of our net revenues in recent years. In addition to uncertainty about our ability to generate revenues from our foreign operations and expand into international markets, there are risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:
•uncertainties and instability in economic and market conditions resulting from Brexit;
•expenses associated with localizing our products and services and customer data, including offering customers the ability to transact business in the local currency and adapting our products and services to local preferences (e.g., payment methods) with which we may have limited or no experience;
•trade barriers and changes in trade regulations;
•difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences;
•stringent local labor laws and regulations;
•credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud;
•profit repatriation restrictions, foreign currency exchange restrictions or extreme fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates for a particular currency;
•global or regional economic conditions that impact companies and customers with which we do business;
•political or social unrest, economic instability, repression, or human rights issues;
•geopolitical events, including natural disasters, public health issues (such as the coronavirus), acts of war, and terrorism;
•supply chain disruptions;
•import or export regulations;
•compliance with U.S. laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and foreign laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as well as U.S. and foreign laws designed to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities;
•antitrust and competition regulations;
•potentially adverse tax developments and consequences;
•economic uncertainties relating to sovereign and other debt;
•different, uncertain, or more stringent user protection, data protection, privacy, and other laws;
•risks related to other government regulation or required compliance with local laws;
•national or regional differences in macroeconomic growth rates;
•payment intermediation regulations;
•local licensing and reporting obligations; and
•increased difficulties in collecting accounts receivable.
Violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations may result in fines, criminal actions, or sanctions against us, our officers, or our employees; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to
promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. These risks inherent in our international operations and expansion increase our costs of doing business internationally and could harm our business.
Cross-border trade is an important source of both revenue and profits for us. Cross-border trade also represents our primary (or in some cases, only) presence in certain important markets, such as China, and various other countries. The interpretation and/or application of laws, such as those related to intellectual property rights of authentic products, selective distribution networks, and sellers in other countries listing items on the Internet, could impose restrictions on, or increase the costs of, purchasing, selling, shipping, or returning goods across national borders. The shipping of goods across national borders is often more expensive and complicated than domestic shipping. Any factors that increase the costs of cross-border trade or restrict, delay, or make cross-border trade more difficult or impractical would lower our revenues and profits and could harm our business.
Our business may be adversely affected by geopolitical events, natural disasters, seasonal factors and other factors that cause our users to spend less time on our websites or mobile platforms and applications, including increased usage of other websites.
Our users may spend less time on our websites and our applications for mobile devices as a result of a variety of diversions, including: geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war, or terrorist activity; natural disasters or the effects of climate change (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity and sea level rise); power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics (such as COVID-19 variants); social networking or other entertainment websites or mobile applications; significant local, national or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population; and seasonal fluctuations due to a variety of factors. If any of these, or any other factors, divert our users from using our websites or mobile applications, our business could be materially adversely affected.
If we cannot keep pace with rapid technological developments or continue to innovate and create new initiatives to provide new programs, products and services, the use of our products and our revenues could decline.
Rapid, significant technological changes continue to confront the industries in which we operate and we cannot predict the effect of technological changes on our business. We also continuously strive to create new initiatives and innovations that promote growth, such as our payments and advertising offerings and other features that enhance the customer experience. In addition to our own initiatives and innovations, we rely in part on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies. We expect that new services and technologies applicable to the industries in which we operate will continue to emerge. These new services and technologies may be superior to, or render obsolete, the technologies we currently use in our products and services. Incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures and take considerable time, and ultimately may not be successful. In addition, our ability to adopt new services and develop new technologies may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, new laws and regulations, resistance to change from our users, clients or merchants, or third parties’ intellectual property rights. Our success will depend on our ability to develop new technologies and adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards.
Changes to our programs to protect buyers and sellers could increase our costs and loss rate, and failure to manage such programs effectively can result in harm to our reputation.
Our eBay Money Back Guarantee program represents the means by which we compensate users who believe that they have been defrauded, have not received the item that they purchased or have received an item different from what was described. We expect to continue to receive communications from users requesting reimbursement or threatening or commencing legal action against us if no reimbursement is made. Our liability for these sorts of claims is beginning to be clarified in some jurisdictions. Litigation involving liability for any such third-party actions could be costly and time consuming for us, divert management attention, result in increased costs of doing business, lead to adverse judgments or settlements or otherwise harm our business. In addition, affected users will likely complain to regulatory agencies that could take action against us, including imposing fines or seeking injunctions.
Additionally, in order to further strengthen our buyers’ confidence and trust in our services and the goods offered on our marketplace, in 2021, we expanded "Authenticity Guarantee," an independent authentication service, to more luxury categories and more markets. If we are unable to effectively manage the authentication process, we may suffer harm to our reputation.
Development of our payments system requires ongoing investment, is subject to evolving laws, regulations, rules, and standards, and involves risk, including risks related to our dependence on third-party providers.
We have invested and plan to continue to invest internal resources into our payments tools in order to maintain existing availability, expand into additional markets and offer new payment methods and other types of financial services to our buyers and sellers. If we fail to invest adequate resources into payments on our platform, or if our investment efforts are unsuccessful, unreliable or result in system failure, our payments and financial services may not function properly or keep pace with competitive offerings, which could negatively impact their usage and our Marketplace. Future errors, failures or outages could cause our buyers and sellers to lose confidence in our payments system and could cause them to cease using our marketplace.
If we transition to new third-party payment service providers for any reason, we may be required to invest significant financial and personnel resources to support such transition or could be unable to find a suitable replacement service provider. As we offer new payment methods and financial services to our sellers and buyers, we are now subject to additional regulations and compliance requirements, and exposed to heightened fraud and regulatory risk, which could lead to an increase in our operating expenses.
We rely on third-party service providers to perform services related to compliance among other activities, credit card processing, payment disbursements, currency exchange, identity verification, sanctions screening, and fraud analysis and detection. As a result, we are subject to a number of risks related to our dependence on third-party service providers. If any or some of these service providers fail to perform adequately or if any such service provider were to terminate or modify its relationship with us unexpectedly, our sellers’ ability to use our platform to receive orders or payments could be adversely affected, which would increase costs, drive sellers away from our marketplaces, result in potential legal liability, and harm our business. In addition, we and our third-party service providers may experience service outages from time to time that could adversely impact payments made on our platform. Additionally, any unexpected termination or modification of those third-party services could lead to a lapse in the effectiveness of certain fraud prevention and detection tools.
Our third-party service providers may increase the fees they charge us in the future, which would increase our operating expenses. This could, in turn, require us to increase the fees we charge to sellers and cause some sellers to reduce listings on our marketplaces or to leave our platform altogether by closing their accounts.
Payments and other financial services are governed by complex and continuously evolving laws and regulations that are subject to change and vary across different jurisdictions in the United States and globally. As a result, we are required to spend significant time and effort to determine whether various licensing and registration laws relating to payments and other financial services we offer apply to us and to comply with applicable laws and licensing and registration regulations. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain or retain any necessary licenses or registrations. Any failure or claim of failure on the part of the Company or its third-party service providers to comply with applicable laws and regulations relating to payments or financial services could require us to expend significant resources, result in liabilities, limit or preclude our ability to enter certain markets and harm our reputation. In addition, changes in payment regulations, or other financial regulation, including changes to the credit or debit card interchange rates in the United States or other markets, could adversely affect payments on our platform and make our payments systems less profitable.
Further, we are indirectly subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements pursuant to agreements with our third-party payment processors. These rules and requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and rules governing electronic funds transfers, are subject to change or reinterpretation, making it difficult for us to comply. Any failure to comply with these rules and certification requirements could impact our ability to meet our contractual obligations to our third-party payment processors and could result in potential fines. In addition, changes in these rules and requirements, including any change in our designation by major payment card providers, could require a change in our business operations and could result in limitations on or loss of our ability to accept payment cards or other forms of payment, any of which could negatively impact our business. Such changes could also increase our costs of compliance, which could lead to increased fees for us or our sellers and adversely affect payments on our platform or usage of our payments services and Marketplace.
Our payments system is susceptible to illegal uses, including money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and payments to sanctioned parties. If our compliance program and internal controls to limit such illegal activity are ineffective, government authorities could bring legal action against us or otherwise suspend our ability to offer payment services in one or more markets.
We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.
We believe the protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress, and trade secrets, is critical to our success. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on applicable laws and regulations in the United States and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights when offering or procuring products and services, including confidentiality and invention assignment agreements entered into with our employees and contractors and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business.
However, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which our products and services are made available, and contractual arrangements and other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property or deter independent development of equivalent or superior intellectual property rights by others. Trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress and trade secret protection is very expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming and may not be successful in every jurisdiction. Also, we may not be able to discover or determine the extent of any unauthorized use of our proprietary rights. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others. These licensees may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation. Any failure to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, or significant costs incurred in doing so, could materially harm our business.
Additionally, we have repeatedly been sued for allegedly infringing other parties’ patents. We are a defendant in various patent suits and have been notified of several other potential patent disputes.
As the number of patent owners and products in the software industry increases and the functionality of these products further overlap, and as we acquire technology through acquisitions or licenses, litigation may be necessary to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property rights of others and we may become increasingly subject to patent suits and other infringement claims, including copyright, and trademark infringement claims. Such claims may be brought directly against us and/or against our customers whom we may indemnify either because we are contractually obligated to do so or we choose to do so as a business matter. Patent claims, whether meritorious or not, are time-consuming and costly to defend and resolve, and could require us to make expensive changes in our methods of doing business, enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements, make substantial payments to satisfy adverse judgments or settle claims or proceedings, or cease conducting certain operations, which would harm our business.
Failure to deal effectively with fraudulent activities on our platforms would increase our loss rate and harm our business, and could severely diminish merchant and consumer confidence in and use of our services.
We face reputational and other risks with respect to fraudulent activities on our platforms and periodically receive complaints from buyers and sellers who may not have received the goods that they had contracted to purchase or payment for the goods that a buyer had contracted to purchase. In some European and Asian jurisdictions, buyers may also have the right to withdraw from a sale made by a professional seller within a specified time period. While we can, in some cases, suspend the accounts of users who fail to fulfill their payment or delivery obligations to other users, we do not have the ability to require users to make payment or deliver goods, or otherwise make users whole other than through our protection programs. Although we have implemented measures to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities, combat bad buyer experiences and increase buyer satisfaction, including evaluating sellers on the basis of their identity and transaction history and restricting or suspending their activity, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective in combating fraudulent transactions or improving overall satisfaction among sellers, buyers, and other participants. Additional measures to address fraud could negatively affect the attractiveness of our services to buyers or sellers, resulting in a reduction in the ability to attract new users or retain current users, damage to our reputation, or a diminution in the value of our brand names.
Our business is subject to online security risks, including security breaches and cyberattacks.
Our businesses involve the storage and transmission of users’ personal financial information. In addition, a significant number of our users authorize us to bill their payment card accounts directly for all transaction and other fees charged by us or, in certain cases, third-party service providers utilized in our payment services. An increasing number of websites, including those owned by several other large Internet and offline companies, have disclosed breaches of their security, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks on portions of their websites or infrastructure. Our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to cyberattacks or security incidents and third parties may be able to access our users’ proprietary information and payment card data that are stored on or accessible through our systems. Any security breach at a company providing services to us or our users could have similar effects.
We may also need to expend significant additional resources to protect against security breaches or to redress problems caused by breaches. Additionally, our insurance policies may not be adequate to reimburse us for losses caused by security breaches and we may not be able to fully collect, if at all, under these insurance policies.
Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of or degradation in the performance of our websites, applications, products or services could harm our business.
Our systems may experience service interruptions or degradation due to hardware and software defects or malfunctions, computer denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, or other events. Our systems are also subject to break-ins, sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience system failures, denial-of-service attacks, human error and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability or reduce the speed or functionality of our websites and mobile applications, including our payments services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the speed or other functionality of our websites and mobile applications or payments services could materially harm our business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our services could cause current or potential users to believe that our systems are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our sites, and could permanently harm our reputation and brands. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in damages to our customers or their businesses, these customers could seek significant compensation from us for their losses and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address. We also rely on facilities, components and services supplied by third parties and our business may be materially adversely affected to the extent these components or services do not meet our expectations or these third parties cease to provide the services or facilities. In particular, a decision by any of our third party hosting providers to close a facility that we use could cause system interruptions and delays, result in loss of critical data and cause lengthy interruptions in our services. We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate us for losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events.
Our success largely depends on key employees. Because competition for our key employees is intense, we may not be able to attract, retain, and develop the highly skilled employees we need to support our business. The loss of senior management or other key employees could harm our business.
Our future performance depends substantially on the continued services of our senior management and other key employees, including highly skilled engineers and product developers, and our ability to attract, retain, and motivate them. Competition for highly skilled individuals is intense, especially in the Silicon Valley where our corporate headquarters are located, and we may be unable to successfully attract, integrate or retain sufficiently qualified employees. In making employment decisions, particularly in the Internet and high-technology industries, employees often consider the value of their total compensation, including share-based awards such as restricted stock units, that they could receive in connection with their employment. In addition, our employee hiring and retention also depend on our ability to build and maintain a diverse, welcoming and inclusive workplace. If our share-based or other compensation programs cease to be viewed as competitive, including due to fluctuations in our stock price, or our workplace is not viewed as welcoming and inclusive, our ability to attract, retain, and motivate
employees would be weakened, which could harm our business. We do not have long-term employment agreements with any of our key employees and do not maintain any “key person” life insurance policies. The loss of the services of any of our senior management or other key employees, or our inability to attract highly qualified senior management and other key employees, could harm our business.
Problems with or price increases by third parties who provide services to us or to our sellers could harm our business.
A number of third parties provide services to us or to our sellers. Such services include seller tools that automate and manage listings, merchant tools that manage listings and interface with inventory management software, storefronts that help our sellers list items and shipping providers that deliver goods sold on our platform, managed payments intermediation, among others. Financial or regulatory issues, labor issues (e.g., strikes, lockouts, worker shortages or work stoppages), or other problems that prevent these companies from providing services to us or our sellers could harm our business.
Price increases by, or service terminations, disruptions or interruptions at, companies that provide services to us and our sellers and clients could also reduce the number of listings on our platforms or make it more difficult for our sellers to complete transactions, thereby harming our business. While we continue to work with global carriers to offer our sellers a variety of shipping options and to enhance their shipping experience, postal rate increases may reduce the competitiveness of certain sellers’ offerings, and postal service changes could require certain sellers to utilize alternatives which could be more expensive or inconvenient, which could in turn decrease the number of transactions on our sites, thereby harming our business.
We have outsourced certain functions to third-party providers, including some customer support, managed payments and product development functions, which are critical to our operations. If our service providers do not perform satisfactorily, our operations could be disrupted, which could result in user dissatisfaction and could harm our business.
There can be no assurance that third parties who provide services directly to us or our sellers will continue to do so on acceptable terms, or at all. If any third parties were to stop providing services to us or our sellers on acceptable terms, including as a result of bankruptcy, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other third parties in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms, or at all.
Regulatory and Legal Risks
Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight, which could adversely impact our business.
We are subject to laws and regulations affecting our domestic and international operations in a number of areas, including consumer protection, data privacy requirements, intellectual property ownership and infringement, prohibited items and stolen goods, tax, antitrust and anti-competition, export requirements, anti-corruption, labor, advertising, digital content, real estate, payments and financial services, billing, ecommerce/marketplace liability, promotions, quality of services, telecommunications, mobile communications and media, environmental, and health and safety regulations, as well as laws and regulations intended to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities. In addition, we are, or may become, subject to further regulation in some of the above-mentioned areas or new areas as a result of the continued development and expansion of our payments capabilities. Further, certain government agencies seek to hold us liable for third party sales on our Marketplace platforms to the extent such sales implicate laws and regulations enforced by those agencies, including specifically the Environmental Protection Agency and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Compliance with these laws, regulations, and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and variances and inconsistencies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction may further increase the cost of compliance and doing business. Any such costs, which may rise in the future as a result of changes in these laws and regulations or in their interpretation, could individually or in the aggregate make our products and services less attractive to our customers, delay the introduction of new products or services in one or more regions, or cause us to change or limit our business practices. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that our customers, employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures.
Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.
We are subject to laws relating to the collection, use, retention, security, and transfer of personally identifiable information about our users around the world. Much of the personal information that we collect, especially financial information, is regulated by multiple laws. User data protection laws may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from country to country. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among ourselves, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relations. These laws continue to develop in ways we cannot predict and that may harm our business.
Regulatory scrutiny of privacy, user data protection, use of data and data collection is increasing on a global basis. We are subject to a number of privacy and similar laws and regulations in the countries in which we operate and these laws and regulations will likely continue to evolve over time, both through regulatory and legislative action and judicial decisions. In addition, compliance with these laws may restrict our ability to provide services to our customers that they may find to be valuable. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) became effective in May 2018. The GDPR, which applies to all of our activities conducted from an establishment in the European Union or related to products and services offered in the European Union, imposes a range of new compliance obligations regarding the handling of personal data. The GDPR imposes significant new obligations and compliance with these obligations depends in part on how particular regulators interpret and apply them. If we fail to comply with the GDPR, or if regulators assert we have failed to comply with the GDPR, it may lead to regulatory enforcement actions, which can result in monetary penalties of up to 4% of worldwide revenue, private lawsuits, or reputational damage. In June 2021, the European Commission finalized recommendations in relation to cross border data transfers and published new versions of the Standard Contractual Clauses. The new requirements will require us to incur costs and expenses in order to comply and may impact the transfer of personal data throughout our organization and to third parties.
In the U.S., California has adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), which became effective January 1, 2020 and which provides a new private right of action for data breaches and requires companies that process information on California residents to make new disclosures to consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices and allow consumers to opt out of certain data sharing with third parties. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act, which was passed in November 2020 and is fully effective in January 2023, significantly modifies the CCPA. These modifications will require us to incur additional costs and expenses in our effort to comply. In addition to the CCPA, several other U.S. states have adopted or are considering adopting laws and regulations imposing obligations regarding the handling of personal data. Compliance with the GDPR, the CCPA, and other current and future applicable international and U.S. privacy, cybersecurity and related laws can be costly and time-consuming. Complying with these varying national and international requirements could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business and violations of privacy-related laws can result in significant penalties.
A determination that there have been violations of laws relating to our practices under communications-based laws could also expose us to significant damage awards, fines and other penalties that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business. In particular, because of the enormous number of texts, emails and other communications we send to our users, communications laws that provide a specified monetary damage award or fine for each violation (such as those described below) could result in particularly large awards or fines.
For example, the Federal Communications Commission amended certain of its regulations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, in 2012 and 2013 in a manner that could increase our exposure to liability for certain types of telephonic communication with customers, including but not limited to text messages to mobile phones. Under the TCPA, plaintiffs may seek actual monetary loss or statutory damages of $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and courts may treble the damage award for willful or knowing violations. We are regularly subject to class-action lawsuits, as well as individual lawsuits, containing allegations that our businesses violated the TCPA. These lawsuits, and other private lawsuits not currently alleged as class actions, seek damages (including statutory damages) and injunctive relief, among other remedies. Given the enormous number of communications we send to our users, a determination that there have been violations of the TCPA or other communications-based statutes could expose us to significant damage awards that could, individually or in the aggregate, materially harm our business.
We post on our websites our privacy policies and practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of user data. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any regulatory requirements or orders or other federal, state or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws and
regulations, including the GDPR and the CCPA, could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others (e.g., class action privacy litigation), subject us to significant penalties and negative publicity, require us to change our business practices, increase our costs and adversely affect our business. Data collection, privacy and security have become the subject of increasing public concern. If Internet and mobile users were to reduce their use of our websites, mobile platforms, products, and services as a result of these concerns, or not consent to the use of their personal information for certain marketing or advertising purposes, our business could be harmed. We also have experienced security breaches and likely will in the future, which themselves may result in a violation of these laws.
Other laws and regulations could harm our business.
It is not always clear how laws and regulations governing matters relevant to our business, such as property ownership, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property issues, parallel imports and distribution controls, taxation, libel and defamation, and obscenity apply to our businesses. Many of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet, mobile, and related technologies and, as a result, do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the Internet and related technologies. Many of these laws, including some of those that do reference the Internet are subject to interpretation by the courts on an ongoing basis and the resulting uncertainty in the scope and application of these laws and regulations increases the risk that we will be subject to private claims and governmental actions alleging violations of those laws and regulations.
As our activities, the products and services we offer, our investment in other companies, and our geographical scope continue to expand, regulatory agencies or courts may claim or hold that we or our users are subject to additional requirements (including licensure) or prohibited from conducting our business in their jurisdiction, either generally or with respect to certain actions. For example, we have the ability to acquire investments in other companies (such as Adevinta, Adyen, KakaoBank and Gmarket, formerly known as Apollo Korea) that raise the potential for us to be deemed an investment company as defined by the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”). While we intend to conduct our operations such that we will not be deemed an investment company, such a determination would require us to initiate burdensome compliance requirements and comply with restrictions imposed by the Investment Company Act that would limit our activities, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, which would have an adverse effect on our financial condition. Further, financial and political events have increased the level of regulatory scrutiny on large companies, and regulatory agencies may view matters or interpret laws and regulations differently than they have in the past and in a manner adverse to our businesses.
Numerous U.S. states and foreign jurisdictions, including the State of California, have regulations regarding “auctions” and the handling of property by “secondhand dealers” or “pawnbrokers.” Several states and some foreign jurisdictions have attempted to impose such regulations upon us or our users, and others may attempt to do so in the future. Attempted enforcement of these laws against some of our users appears to be increasing and we could be required to change the way we or our users do business in ways that increase costs or reduce revenues, such as forcing us to prohibit listings of certain items or restrict certain listing formats in some locations. We could also be subject to fines or other penalties, and any of these outcomes could harm our business.
As we expand and localize our international activities, we are increasingly becoming obligated to comply with the laws of the countries or markets in which we operate. In addition, because our services are accessible worldwide and we facilitate sales of goods and provide services to users worldwide, one or more jurisdictions may claim that we or our users are required to comply with their laws based on the location of our servers or one or more of our users, or the location of the product or service being sold or provided in an ecommerce transaction. Laws regulating Internet, mobile and ecommerce technologies outside of the United States are generally less favorable to us than those in the United States. Compliance may be more costly or may require us to change our business practices or restrict our service offerings, and the imposition of any regulations on us or our users may harm our business. In addition, we may be subject to multiple overlapping legal or regulatory regimes that impose conflicting requirements on us (e.g., in cross-border trade). Our alleged failure to comply with foreign laws could subject us to penalties ranging from criminal prosecution to significant fines to bans on our services, in addition to the significant costs we may incur in defending against such actions.
We are regularly subject to general litigation, regulatory disputes, and government inquiries.
We are regularly subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government investigations, and other proceedings involving competition and antitrust, intellectual property, privacy, consumer
protection, accessibility claims, securities, tax, labor and employment, commercial disputes, content generated by our users, services and other matters. The number and significance of these disputes and inquiries have increased as our Company has grown larger, our businesses have expanded in scope and geographic reach, and our products and services have increased in complexity. As the global regulatory and legal landscape evolves, we may also become subject to product liability claims when products sold by third parties using our platforms result in personal injury, or illness, or death or injury to property.
The outcome and impact of such claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such investigations and proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors. Determining reserves for our pending litigation and other proceedings is a complex, fact-intensive process that is subject to judgment calls. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments, fines or penalties or to settle claims or proceedings, any of which could harm our business. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, criminal sanctions, consent decrees, or orders preventing us from offering certain products, or services, or requiring a change in our business practices in costly ways, or requiring development of non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies. Any of these consequences could harm our business.
We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business.
We are subject to scrutiny by various government agencies under U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including antitrust and competition laws. Some jurisdictions also provide private rights of action for competitors or consumers to assert claims of anti-competitive conduct. Other companies and government agencies have in the past and may in the future allege that our actions violate the antitrust or competition laws of the United States, individual states, the European Union or other countries, or otherwise constitute unfair competition. An increasing number of governments are regulating competition law activities, including increased scrutiny in large markets such as China. Our business partnerships or agreements or arrangements with customers or other companies could give rise to regulatory action or antitrust litigation. Some regulators, particularly those outside of the United States, may perceive our business to be used so broadly that otherwise uncontroversial business practices could be deemed anticompetitive. Certain competition authorities have conducted market studies of our industries. Such claims and investigations, even if without foundation, may be very expensive to defend, involve negative publicity and substantial diversion of management time and effort and could result in significant judgments against us or require us to change our business practices.
The listing or sale by our users of certain items, including items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, illegal items or items used in an illegal manner may harm our business.
The listing or sale by our users of unlawful, counterfeit or stolen goods or unlawful services, or sale of goods or services in an unlawful manner, has resulted and may continue to result in allegations of civil or criminal liability for unlawful activities against us (including the employees and directors of our various entities) involving activities carried out by users through our services. In a number of circumstances, third parties, including government regulators and law enforcement officials, have alleged that our services aid and abet violations of certain laws, including laws regarding the sale of counterfeit items, laws restricting or prohibiting the transferability (and by extension, the resale) of digital goods (e.g., books, music and software), the fencing of stolen goods, selective distribution channel laws, customs laws, distance selling laws, and the sale of items outside of the United States that are regulated by U.S. export controls.
In addition, allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights, including but not limited to counterfeit items, have resulted in threatened and actual litigation from time to time by rights owners. These and similar suits may also force us to modify our business practices in a manner that increases costs, lowers revenue, makes our websites and mobile platforms less convenient to customers, and requires us to spend substantial resources to take additional protective measures or discontinue certain service offerings in order to combat these practices. In addition, we have received significant media attention relating to the listing or sale of illegal or counterfeit goods, which could damage our reputation, diminish the value of our brand names, and make users reluctant to use our products and services.
Recently, we received requests for information from government agencies related to our potential liability for products sold by sellers on our Marketplace platforms. We have responded to inquiries from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding products sold on our Marketplace platforms alleged to violate certain laws and regulations, including regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency and, separately, regulations of the Drug Enforcement Agency. If we are found to be liable for such activities on our Marketplace, we could be subject to monetary damages, changes in our business practices, or other remedies that could have a material adverse impact on our business.
We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our services.
Online services companies may be subject to claims relating to information disseminated through their services, including claims alleging defamation, libel, breach of contract, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, among other things. The laws relating to the liability of online services companies for information disseminated through their services are subject to frequent challenges both in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. Any liabilities incurred as a result of these matters could require us to incur additional costs and harm our reputation and our business.
Our potential liability to third parties for the user-provided content on our sites, particularly in jurisdictions outside the United States where laws governing Internet transactions are unsettled, may increase. If we become liable for information provided by our users and carried on our service in any jurisdiction in which we operate, we could be directly harmed and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability, including expending substantial resources or discontinuing certain service offerings, which could harm our business.
Interest Rate and Indebtedness Risks
Fluctuations in interest rates, and changes in regulatory guidance related to such interest rates, could adversely impact our financial results.
Investments in both fixed-rate and floating-rate interest-earning instruments carry varying degrees of interest rate risk. The fair market value of our fixed-rate investment securities may be adversely impacted due to a rise in interest rates. In addition, relatively low interest rates limit our investment income.
We have substantial indebtedness, and we may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future, and we may not generate sufficient cash flow from our business to service our indebtedness. Failure to comply with the terms of our indebtedness could result in the acceleration of our indebtedness, which could have an adverse effect on our cash flow and liquidity.
We have a substantial amount of outstanding indebtedness and we may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future, including under our commercial paper program and revolving credit facility or through public or private offerings of debt securities. Our outstanding indebtedness and any additional indebtedness we incur may have significant consequences, including, without limitation, any of the following:
•requiring us to use a significant portion of our cash flow from operations and other available cash to service our indebtedness, thereby reducing the amount of cash available for other purposes, including capital expenditures, dividends, share repurchases, and acquisitions;
•our indebtedness and leverage may increase our vulnerability to downturns in our business, to competitive pressures, and to adverse changes in general economic and industry conditions;
•adverse changes in the ratings assigned to our debt securities by credit rating agencies will likely increase our borrowing costs;
•our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, share repurchases, dividends or other general corporate and other purposes may be limited; and
•our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry may be limited.
Tax Risks
Our business and our sellers and buyers may be subject to evolving sales and other tax regimes in various jurisdictions, which may harm our business.
The application of indirect taxes such as sales and use tax, value-added tax (“VAT”), goods and services tax (“GST”) (including the “digital services tax”), business tax, withholding tax and gross receipt tax, and tax information reporting obligations to businesses like ours and to our sellers and buyers is a complex and evolving issue. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the Internet and ecommerce. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear when and how new and existing statutes might apply to our business or to our sellers’ businesses. In some cases it may be difficult or impossible for us to validate information provided to us by our sellers on which we must rely to ascertain any obligations that may apply to us related to our sellers’ businesses, given the intricate nature of these regulations as they apply to particular products or services and that many of the products and services sold in our marketplace are unique or handmade. If we are found to be deficient in how we have addressed our tax obligations, our business could be adversely impacted.
From time to time, some taxing authorities in the United States have notified us that they believe we owe them certain taxes imposed on our services. These notifications have not resulted in any significant tax liabilities to date, but there is a risk that some jurisdiction may be successful in the future, which would harm our business. While we attempt to comply in those jurisdictions where it is clear that a tax is due, some of our subsidiaries have, from time to time, received claims relating to the applicability of indirect taxes to our fees. Additionally, we pay input VAT on applicable taxable purchases within the various countries in which we operate. In most cases, we are entitled to reclaim this input VAT from the various countries. However, because of our unique business model, the application of the laws and rules that allow such reclamation is sometimes uncertain. A successful assertion by one or more countries that we are not entitled to reclaim VAT could harm our business.
Various jurisdictions are seeking to, or have recently imposed additional reporting, record-keeping, indirect tax collection and remittance obligations, or revenue-based taxes on businesses like ours that facilitate online commerce. If requirements like these become applicable in additional jurisdictions, our business, collectively with eBay sellers’ businesses, could be harmed. For example, taxing authorities in the U.S. and in other countries have targeted e-commerce platforms as a means to calculate, collect, and remit indirect taxes for transactions taking place over the internet, and have enacted laws and others are considering similar legislation. With two additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2021, some buyers across the U.S. encountered sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have enacted Internet sales tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Spain in 2021, and we are complying with the legislation. Our business will also be required to increase payments reporting requirements for US sellers as a result of federal legislation. Starting on January 1, 2022, all businesses that process payments are required to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales, a decrease from the previous reporting threshold of $20,000 and 200 transactions. Form 1099-Ks for the new thresholds will be issued in January 2023. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements, or reporting, could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.
These legislative changes or new legislation could adversely affect our business if the requirement of tax to be charged on items sold on our marketplaces causes our marketplaces to be less attractive to current and prospective buyers, which could materially impact our business and eBay sellers’ businesses. This legislation could also require us or our sellers to incur substantial costs in order to comply, including costs associated with tax calculation, collection, remittance, and audit requirements, which could make selling on our marketplaces less attractive.
We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires estimation and significant judgment, and there can be from time to time transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Like many other multinational corporations, we are subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and have structured our operations to reduce our effective tax rate. Our determination of our tax liability is always subject to audit and review by applicable domestic and foreign tax authorities, and we are currently undergoing a number of investigations, audits and reviews by taxing authorities throughout the world, including with respect to our business structure. Any adverse outcome of any such audit or review could harm our business, and the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made. While we have established reserves based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonable to cover such eventualities, these reserves may prove to be insufficient.
In addition, our future income taxes could be adversely affected by a shift in our jurisdictional earning mix, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, as a result of gains on our foreign exchange risk management program, or changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles, as well as certain discrete items.
Transactional Risks
Acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and strategic investments could result in operating difficulties and could harm our business or impact our financial results.
We have acquired a significant number of businesses of varying size and scope, technologies, services, and products, and we maintain investments in certain businesses. We have also disposed of significant businesses. We expect to continue to evaluate and consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions as part of our overall business strategy, including business combinations, acquisitions, and dispositions of businesses, technologies, services, products, and other assets, as well as strategic investments and joint ventures.
These transactions may involve significant challenges and risks, including:
•the potential loss of key customers, merchants, vendors and other key business partners of the companies we acquire, or dispose of, following and continuing after announcement of our transaction plans;
•declining employee morale and retention issues affecting employees of companies that we acquire or dispose of, which may result from changes in compensation, or changes in management, reporting relationships, future prospects or the direction of the acquired or disposed business;
•difficulty making new and strategic hires of new employees;
•diversion of management time and a shift of focus from operating the businesses to the transaction, and in the case of an acquisition, integration and administration;
•the need to provide transition services to a disposed of company, which may result in the diversion of resources and focus;
•the need to integrate the operations, systems (including accounting, management, information, human resource and other administrative systems), technologies, products and personnel of each acquired company, which is an inherently risky and potentially lengthy and costly process;
•the inefficiencies and lack of control that may result if such integration is delayed or not implemented, and unforeseen difficulties and expenditures that may arise as a result;
•the need to implement or improve controls, procedures and policies appropriate for a larger public company at companies that prior to acquisition may have lacked such controls, procedures and policies or whose controls, procedures and policies did not meet applicable legal and other standards;
•risks associated with our expansion into new international markets;
•derivative lawsuits resulting from the acquisition or disposition;
•liability for activities of the acquired or disposed of company before the transaction, including intellectual property and other litigation claims or disputes, violations of laws, rules and regulations, commercial disputes, tax liabilities and other known and unknown liabilities and, in the case of dispositions, liabilities to the acquirors of those businesses under contractual provisions such as representations, warranties and indemnities;
•the potential loss of key employees following the transaction;
•the acquisition of new customer and employee personal information by us or a third party acquiring assets or businesses from us, which in and of itself may require regulatory approval and or additional controls, policies and procedures and subject us to additional exposure;
•any fluctuations in share prices, financial results and fluctuations in exchange rates, and our ability to sell our shares in any company we have invested in; and
•our dependence on the acquired business’ accounting, financial reporting, operating metrics and similar systems, controls and processes and the risk that errors or irregularities in those systems, controls and processes will lead to errors in our consolidated financial statements or make it more difficult to manage the acquired business.
We have made certain investments, including through joint ventures, in which we have a minority equity interest and/or lack management and operational control. The controlling joint venture partner in a joint venture may have business interests, strategies, or goals that are inconsistent with ours, and business decisions or other actions or omissions of the controlling joint venture partner or the joint venture company may result in harm to our reputation or adversely affect the value of our investment in the joint venture. Any circumstances, which may be out of our control, that adversely affect the value of our investments, or cost resulting from regulatory action or lawsuits in connection with our investments, could harm our business or negatively impact our financial results.
We entered into a warrant agreement in conjunction with a commercial agreement with Adyen that entitles us to acquire a fixed number of shares of Adyen’s common stock subject to certain milestones being met. This warrant is accounted for as a derivative instrument under ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging. Changes in Adyen’s common stock price and equity volatility has had, and may continue to have in the future, a significant impact on the value of this warrant. We report this warrant on a quarterly basis at fair value in our consolidated balance sheets, and changes in the fair value of this warrant are recognized in our consolidated statement of income. Fluctuations in Adyen’s common stock price and prevailing foreign exchange rate or other changes in assumptions could result in material changes in the fair value that we report in our consolidated balance sheets and our consolidated statement of income, which could have a material impact on our financial results.
Upon closing of the transaction to transfer the Classifieds business, we received approximately 540 million Adevinta shares, a portion of which was later sold to Permira. Fluctuations in Adevinta’s share price, financial results and fluctuations in exchange rates could result in material changes in our consolidated balance sheet and our consolidated statement of income. In addition, our ability to sell our Adevinta shares in the future will be subject to market conditions and other factors which could impact the value we are able to realize from any such sales.
We could incur significant liability if the Distribution is determined to be a taxable transaction.
We have received an opinion from outside tax counsel to the effect that our distribution of 100% of the outstanding common stock of PayPal to our stockholders on July 17, 2015 (the “Distribution”) qualifies as a transaction that is described in Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code. The opinion relies on certain facts, assumptions, representations and undertakings from PayPal and us regarding the past and future conduct of the companies’ respective businesses and other matters. If any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are incorrect or not satisfied, our stockholders and we may not be able to rely on the opinion of tax counsel and could be subject to significant tax liabilities. Notwithstanding the opinion of tax counsel we have received, the IRS could determine on audit that the Distribution is taxable if it determines that any of these facts, assumptions, representations or undertakings are not correct or have been violated or if it disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion. If the Distribution is determined to be taxable for U.S. federal income tax purposes, our stockholders that are subject to U.S. federal income tax and we could incur significant U.S. federal income tax liabilities.
We may be exposed to claims and liabilities as a result of the Distribution.
We entered into a separation and distribution agreement and various other agreements with PayPal to govern the Distribution and the relationship of the two companies. These agreements provide for specific indemnity and liability obligations and could lead to disputes between us and PayPal. The indemnity rights we have against PayPal under the agreements may not be sufficient to protect us. In addition, our indemnity obligations to PayPal may be significant and these risks could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
ITEM 1B: UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Not applicable.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
ITEM 2: PROPERTIES
We own and lease various properties in the U.S. and 23 other countries around the world. We use the properties for executive and administrative offices, data centers, product development offices and customer service offices. Our headquarters are located in San Jose, California and occupies approximately 0.5 million square feet. Our owned data centers are solely located in Utah. The following table presents the aggregate square footage of our owned and leased properties for our continuing operations as of December 31, 2021 (in millions):
United States Other Countries Total
Owned facilities 1.3 - 1.3
Leased facilities 0.8 1.0 1.8
Total facilities 2.1 1.0 3.1
From time to time we consider various alternatives related to our long-term facilities needs. While we believe that our existing facilities are adequate to meet our immediate needs, it may become necessary to develop and improve land that we own or lease or acquire additional or alternative space to accommodate any future growth.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
ITEM 3: LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
This information is set forth under “Note 12 - Commitments and Contingencies - Litigation and Other Legal Matters” to the consolidated financial statements included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
ITEM 4: MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
ITEM 5: MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Common Stock
Our common stock has been traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “EBAY” since September 24, 1998. As of February 21, 2022, there were approximately 3,393 holders of record of our common stock, although we believe that there are a significantly larger number of beneficial owners of our common stock.
Dividend Policy
The company paid a total of $466 million and $447 million in cash dividends during the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, respectively. In February 2022, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.22 per share of common stock to be paid on March 18, 2022 to stockholders of record as of March 10, 2022. The timing, declaration, amount and payment of any future cash dividends are at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend on many factors, including our available cash, working capital, financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, covenants in our credit agreement, applicable law and other business considerations that our Board of Directors considers relevant.
Performance Measurement Comparison
The graph below shows the cumulative total stockholder return of an investment of $100 (and the reinvestment of any dividends thereafter) on December 31, 2016 (the last trading day for the year ended December 31, 2016) in (i) our common stock, (ii) the Nasdaq Composite Index, (iii) the S&P 500 Index and (iv) the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.
Our stock price performance shown in the graph below is not indicative of future stock price performance. The graph and related information shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or be deemed to be “filed” with the SEC, nor shall such information be incorporated by reference into any past or future filing with the SEC, except to the extent that such filing specifically states that such graph and related information are incorporated by reference into such filing.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
The following table presents stock repurchase activity during the three months ended December 31, 2021:
Period Ended Total Number of Shares Purchased Average Price Paid per Share (3)
Total Number of
Shares Purchased
as Part of Publicly
Announced
Programs Maximum Dollar Value that May Yet be Purchased Under the Programs (2)
October 31, 2021
Open market purchases 6,703,900 $ 74.58 6,703,900 $ 4,491,176,019
Accelerated share repurchase 29,346,774 (1)
$ - (1)
29,346,774 $ 1,991,176,019
November 30, 2021
Open market purchases - $ - - $ 1,991,176,019
December 31, 2021
Accelerated share repurchase 3,326,883 (1)
$ - (1)
3,326,883 $ 1,991,176,019
39,377,557 39,377,557
(1)In October 2021, we entered into accelerated share repurchase agreements (the “2021 ASR Agreements”) with two financial institutions (each, a “2021 ASR Counterparty”), as part of our share repurchase program. Under the 2021 ASR Agreements, we paid an aggregate amount of $2.5 billion to the 2021 ASR Counterparties and received an initial delivery of approximately 29.3 million shares of our common stock. In December 2021, the 2021 ASR Agreement with one of the 2021 ASR Counterparties settled and resulted in a delivery of approximately 3.4 million additional shares of our common stock. In January 2022, the 2021 ASR Agreement with the remaining 2021 ASR Counterparty settled and resulted in a delivery of approximately 3.3 million additional shares. In total under the 2021 ASR Repurchase Agreements, approximately 36.0 million shares were repurchased at an average price per share of $69.43.
(2)In January 2020 our Board authorized an additional $5 billion stock repurchase program, in February 2021 our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program and in August 2021 our Board authorized an additional $3.0 billion stock repurchase program. These stock repurchase programs have no expiration from the date of authorization. In February 2022 our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program.
Our stock repurchase programs are intended to programmatically offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programs and, subject to market conditions and other factors, to make opportunistic and programmatic repurchases of our common stock to reduce our outstanding share count. Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programs may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions (including accelerated share repurchase transactions) or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate and will be funded from our working capital or other financing alternatives.
During the three months ended December 31, 2021, we (i) entered into the 2021 ASR Agreements and paid an aggregate amount of $2.5 billion to the 2021 ASR Counterparties and (ii) additionally repurchased approximately $500 million of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. As of December 31, 2021, a total of approximately $2.0 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase program.
We expect, subject to market conditions and other uncertainties, to continue making opportunistic and programmatic repurchases of our common stock. However, our stock repurchase programs may be limited or terminated at any time without prior notice. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including corporate and regulatory requirements, price and other market conditions and management’s determination as to the appropriate use of our cash.
(3)Excludes broker commissions.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6: [RESERVED]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
ITEM 7: MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
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, future results of operations or financial condition, including with respect to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, new or planned 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 in our consolidated financial statements, related notes, and the other information appearing elsewhere in this report and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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. You should read the following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in this report. This section of this Form 10-K generally discusses 2021 and 2020 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020. Discussions of 2019 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019 are not included in this Form 10-K, and can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
OVERVIEW
Business
eBay Inc., is a global commerce leader, which includes our Marketplace platforms. Founded in 1995 in San Jose, California, eBay is one of the world’s largest and most vibrant marketplaces for discovering great value and unique selection. Collectively, we connect millions of buyers and sellers around the world, empowering people and creating opportunity. Our technologies and services are designed to provide buyers choice and a breadth of relevant inventory and to enable sellers worldwide to organize and offer their inventory for sale, virtually anytime and anywhere. In 2021, eBay enabled $87 billion of Gross Merchandise Volume.
In 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and its variants as a pandemic which continues to be widespread with uncertainty around its duration. As a result of COVID-19 mobility restrictions globally, there were changes in consumer behavior that have resulted in more online shopping beginning in 2020 and extending into 2021. Our Marketplace platforms experienced improved traffic, acquisition of small business sellers and buyer acquisition due to the impacts of measures taken globally to contain the spread of COVID-19. These changes in behavior began to normalize as mobility trended toward pre-pandemic levels through the remainder of 2021, and we have experienced lower traffic in most markets which we expect to continue into 2022. The impacts seen to date continue to create volatility in our results and a wider range of potential outcomes as consumer behaviors and mobility restrictions continue to evolve. See “Results of Operations” below for impacts of COVID-19 on our results for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. For additional information, see “- Liquidity and Capital Resource Requirements” below and “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “The global COVID-19 pandemic could harm our business and results of operations” in Part II of this report.
On November 14, 2021, we completed the previously announced sale of 80.01% of the outstanding equity interests of eBay Korea LLC, a limited liability company incorporated under the laws of Korea and a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay KTA (“eBay Korea”) to E-mart Inc. and one of its wholly owned subsidiaries (together, “Emart”), pursuant to the terms and conditions of the securities purchase agreement, in exchange for approximately $3.0 billion of gross cash proceeds as of the transaction close date, subject to certain adjustments specified for indebtedness, cash, working capital, transaction expenses and certain taxes. The sale resulted in a pre-tax gain of $3.2 billion inclusive of a $81 million currency translation adjustment and a $44 million gain net of tax on the net investment hedge settled in the fourth quarter of 2021, and related income tax expense of $369 million. Upon
completion of the sale, we retained 19.99% of the outstanding equity interests of the new entity, Gmarket Global LLC (“Gmarket”) formerly known as Apollo Korea, which is accounted for under the fair value option.
On June 24, 2021, we completed the previously announced transfer of our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”) for $2.5 billion in cash proceeds, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 540 million shares in Adevinta which represent an equity interest of 44%, comprised of approximately 33% of voting shares and 11% of non-voting shares. Together, the total consideration received under the definitive agreement was valued at approximately $13.3 billion, based on the closing trading price of Adevinta’s outstanding shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange on June 24, 2021. The equity interest received is accounted for under the fair value option. On November 18, 2021, we completed the previously announced sale of approximately 135 million of our voting shares in Adevinta to Astinlux Finco S.à r.l. (“Permira”), inclusive of the option exercised by Permira to purchase additional voting shares, for approximately $2.3 billion in cash proceeds. At the close of the sale inclusive of the option exercised, our ownership in Adevinta was reduced to 33%.
On February 13, 2020, we closed the previously announced sale of our StubHub business to an affiliate of viagogo. Beginning in the first quarter of 2020, StubHub’s financial results for periods prior to the sale have been reflected in our consolidated statement of income as discontinued operations. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations in the prior periods are classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated balance sheet.
We have classified the related assets and liabilities associated with our eBay Korea and Classifieds businesses as discontinued operations in our consolidated balance sheet. The results of our eBay Korea, Classifieds and StubHub businesses have been presented as discontinued operations in our consolidated statement of income for all periods presented through the respective transaction close dates as the transactions represented a strategic shift in our business that had a major effect on our operations and financial results.
See “Note 3 - Discontinued Operations” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for additional information.
Presentation
In addition to the corresponding measures under generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), management uses non-GAAP measures in reviewing our financial results. The foreign exchange neutral (“FX-Neutral”), or constant currency, net revenue amounts discussed below are non-GAAP financial measures and are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Accordingly, the FX-Neutral information appearing in the following discussion of our results of operations should be read in conjunction with the information provided below in “Non-GAAP Measures of Financial Performance,” which includes reconciliations of FX-Neutral financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. We calculate the year-over-year impact of foreign currency movements using prior period foreign currency rates applied to current year transactional currency amounts.
Fiscal Year Highlights
During 2021, we completed the migration of eBay’s managed payments in all markets, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Net revenues increased 17% to $10.4 billion in 2021 compared to 2020 primarily due to the migration of managed payments on a global basis and the associated higher take rate. Transaction take rate was higher in 2021 compared to 2020 as a result of revenue initiatives such as global payments and Promoted Listings, which along with final value fees are calculated as a percentage of an item’s sale price and category mix. FX-Neutral net revenue (as defined above) increased 15% in 2021 compared to 2020. Operating margin decreased to 28.1% in 2021 compared to 29.6% in 2020.
On November 14, 2021, we completed the sale of 80.01% of the outstanding equity interests of eBay Korea to Emart for approximately $3.0 billion of gross cash proceeds. We retained 19.99% of the outstanding equity interests of the new entity, Gmarket, which is accounted for under the fair value option.
On June 24, 2021, the transfer of our Classifieds business was completed for $13.3 billion of consideration which comprised of $2.5 billion in proceeds and shares of Adevinta valued at $10.8 billion. On November 18, 2021, we completed the sale of approximately 135 million of our voting shares in Adevinta to Permira for approximately $2.3 billion in proceeds. At the close of the sale our ownership in Adevinta was reduced to 33%.
We generated cash flow from continuing operating activities of $3.1 billion in 2021 compared to $3.0 billion in 2020, ending the year with cash, cash equivalents and non-equity investments from continuing operations of $7.3 billion.
In May 2021, we issued senior notes of $2.5 billion aggregate principal amount, which consisted of $750 million of 1.400% fixed rate notes due 2026, $750 million of 2.600% fixed rate notes due to 2031 and $1.0 billion of 3.650% fixed rate notes due 2051.
In 2021, we repaid approximately $1.2 billion of debt primarily comprised of $750 million for the 6.000% senior fixed rate notes due 2056 and $395 million of the 2.600% senior fixed rate notes due 2022. We also paid $7.1 billion for repurchases of common stock, of which $2.5 billion related to repurchases of common stock under an accelerated share repurchase program, and paid $466 million in cash dividends.
In February 2022, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.22 per share of common stock to be paid on March 18, 2022 to stockholders of record as of March 10, 2022.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
We have one reportable segment to reflect the way management and our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) review and assess performance of the business. Our reportable segment is Marketplace, which includes our online marketplace located at www.ebay.com, its localized counterparts and the eBay suite of mobile apps. The accounting policies of our segment are the same as those described in “Note 1 - The Company and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report.
Net Revenues
Seasonality
We expect transaction activity patterns on our platforms to trend with general consumer buying patterns and expect that these trends will continue. As we introduce new products and platforms, such as managed payments, we expect net revenues to fluctuate. In addition, macroeconomic conditions, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, may also contribute to fluctuations in revenues and margins. The following table presents our total net revenues and the sequential quarterly movements of these net revenues for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Quarter Ended
March 31 June 30 September 30 December 31
Net revenues $ 1,867 $ 1,859 $ 1,799 $ 1,904
% change from prior quarter ** - % (3) % 6 %
Net revenues $ 1,821 $ 2,337 $ 2,258 $ 2,478
% change from prior quarter (4) % 28 % (3) % 10 %
Net revenues $ 2,638 $ 2,668 $ 2,501 $ 2,613
% change from prior quarter 6 % 1 % (6) % 4 %
** Growth for the period excluded as 2018 revenue numbers have not been recast and provided.
Net Revenues by Geography
Revenues are attributed to U.S. and international geographies primarily based upon the country in which the seller, platform that displays advertising, other service provider or customer, as the case may be, is located. The following table presents net revenues by geography for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
U.S. $ 5,048 22 % 4,151 26 % $ 3,303
% of net revenues 48 % 47 % 44 %
International 5,372 13 % 4,743 15 % 4,126
% of net revenues 52 % 53 % 56 %
Total net revenues $ 10,420 17 % $ 8,894 20 % $ 7,429
Our commerce platforms operate globally, resulting in certain revenues that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British pound and euro. In addition, as shown in the table above, we generate approximately half of our net revenues internationally. Because of these factors, we are subject to the risks related to doing business in foreign countries as discussed under “Item 1A: Risk Factors” in Part I of this report.
Net revenues included $65 million of hedging losses during 2021 and $15 million and $81 million of hedging gains during 2020 and 2019, respectively. The hedging activity in net revenues specifically relates to hedges of net transaction revenues. Foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar had a favorable impact of $188 million
and $26 million on net revenues in 2021 and 2020, respectively, and an unfavorable impact of $85 million on net revenues in 2019. The effect of foreign currency exchange rate movements in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily attributable to the weakening of the U.S. dollar against the British pound and euro.
Net Revenues by Type
We generate two types of net revenues:
Net transaction revenues primarily include final value fees, feature fees, including fees to promote listings and listing fees from sellers on our platforms. Our net transaction revenues also include store subscription and other fees often from large enterprise sellers. Our net transaction revenues are reduced by incentives, including discounts, coupons and rewards, provided to our customers.
Marketing services and other ("MS&O") revenues consist of revenues principally from the sale of revenue sharing arrangements and advertisements.
The following table presents net revenues by type for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
Net transaction revenues $ 9,772 19 % $ 8,243 25 % $ 6,581
Marketing services and other revenues 648 - % 651 (23) % 848
Total net revenues $ 10,420 17 % $ 8,894 20 % $ 7,429
Net Transaction Revenues
Key Operating Metrics
Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”) and take rate are significant factors that we believe affect our net transaction revenues.
GMV consists of the total value of all paid transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period inclusive of shipping fees and taxes. Despite GMV’s divergence from revenue, we still believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of paid transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period.
Take rate is defined as net transaction revenues divided by GMV and represents net transaction revenue as a percentage of overall volume on our platforms. We believe that take rate provides a useful measure of our ability to monetize volume through marketplace services on our platforms in a given period. We use take rate to identify key revenue drivers on our marketplace.
Net Transaction Revenues
Year Ended December 31, % Change Year Ended December 31, % Change
2021 2020 As Reported FX-Neutral 2020 2019 As Reported FX-Neutral
Net transaction revenues (1)
$ 9,772 $ 8,243 19 % 17 % $ 8,243 $ 6,581 25 % 26 %
Supplemental data:
GMV (2)
$ 87,365 $ 87,608 - % (3) % $ 87,608 $ 72,134 21 % 21 %
Take rate 11.19 % 9.41 % 1.78 % 9.41 % 9.12 % 0.29 %
(1)Marketplace net transaction revenues were net of $65 million, $15 million and $81 million hedging activity during the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively.
(2)GMV has been retrospectively recast to reflect the new definition of GMV announced in December 2021.
During 2021, we completed the migration of eBay’s managed payments in all markets, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Net transaction revenues increased $1.5 billion in 2021 compared to 2020 primarily due to the migration of managed payments on a global basis and the associated higher take rate as well as the growth of Promoted Listings. GMV was relatively flat in 2021 compared to 2020 due to improved traffic and buyer acquisition during the first quarter of 2021 offset by a decline in traffic experienced for the remainder of 2021. Traffic has fluctuated throughout 2021 and 2020 in response to the pervasive macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19, including mobility restrictions which influence consumer engagement in online shopping. GMV in both 2021 and 2020 was elevated compared to 2019 as improved business dynamics influenced growth across all major product categories. While GMV growth rates were relatively flat across many categories in 2021 compared to 2020, market trends influenced stronger contributions from the collectibles category in 2021 compared to 2020, particularly in the U.S.
Transaction take rate was higher in 2021 compared to 2020 as a result of revenue initiatives such as global payments which resulted in the majority of global on-platform volume processed through managed payments and Promoted Listings, which along with final value fees are calculated as a percentage of an item’s sale price and category mix.
The increase in net transaction revenues in 2021 compared to 2020 was due to take rate considerations discussed above, despite relatively flat GMV. We expect that the divergence between net transaction revenues and GMV to continue into 2022. Despite GMV’s divergence from net transaction revenues, we still believe the metric provides a useful measure of overall volume of paid transactions that flow through the platform in a given period.
Marketing Services and Other Revenues
The following table presents MS&O revenues for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, % Change Year Ended December 31, % Change
2021 2020 As Reported FX-Neutral 2020 2019 As Reported FX-Neutral
MS&O revenues $ 648 $ 651 - % (2) % $ 651 $ 848 (23) % (23) %
% of net revenues 6 % 7 % 7 % 11 %
MS&O revenues were relatively flat in 2021 compared to 2020 primarily due to a decrease in advertising revenues offset by an increase in revenues from revenue sharing arrangements for shipping agreements.
Cost of Net Revenues
Cost of net revenues represents costs associated with customer support, site operations and payment processing. Significant components of these costs primarily consist of employee compensation including stock-based compensation, contractor costs, facilities costs, depreciation of equipment and amortization expense, bank transaction fees, credit card interchange and assessment fees, authentication costs and digital services tax. The following table presents cost of net revenues for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
Cost of net revenues $ 2,650 47 % $ 1,797 13 % $ 1,585
% of net revenues 25 % 20 % 21 %
Cost of net revenues, net of immaterial hedging activities, was unfavorably impacted by $30 million attributable to foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar in 2021 compared to 2020. The increase in cost of net revenues in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily due to an increase in payment processing costs as we transitioned customers to our payments platform throughout 2021 and an unfavorable impact from foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar.
Operating Expenses
The following table presents operating expenses for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
Sales and marketing $ 2,170 4 % $ 2,091 12 % $ 1,866
% of net revenues 21 % 24 % 25 %
Product development 1,325 29 % 1,028 11 % 930
% of net revenues 13 % 12 % 13 %
General and administrative 921 (6) % 985 - % 988
% of net revenues 9 % 11 % 13 %
Provision for transaction losses 422 28 % 330 26 % 262
% of net revenues 4 % 4 % 4 %
Amortization of acquired intangible assets 9 (67) % 27 (6) % 28
Total operating expenses $ 4,847 9 % $ 4,461 10 % $ 4,074
Foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar had an unfavorable impact of $80 million on operating expenses in 2021 compared to 2020. There was no hedging activity within operating expenses.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of advertising and marketing program costs (both online and offline), employee compensation including stock-based compensation, certain user coupons and rewards, contractor costs, facilities costs and depreciation on equipment. Online marketing expenses represent traffic acquisition costs in various channels such as paid search, affiliates marketing and display advertising. Offline advertising primarily includes brand campaigns and buyer/seller communications.
The increase in sales and marketing expenses in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily due to increases of $84 million in online advertising expenses, $37 million in employee compensation and $25 million in executive severance costs. These increases were offset by a decrease of $78 million in certain coupons and rewards.
Product Development
Product development expenses primarily consist of employee compensation including stock-based compensation, contractor costs, facilities costs and depreciation on equipment. Product development expenses are net of required capitalization of major platform and other product development efforts, including the development and maintenance of our technology platform. Our top technology priorities include payment intermediation capabilities, products to grow the seller tools ecosystem and product experiences that delight our customers and enhance the buying experience for our enthusiasts.
The increase in product development expenses in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily due to increases of $227 million in employee related costs. Capitalized internal use and platform development costs were $127 million and $129 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively, and are primarily reflected as a cost of net revenues when amortized in future periods.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses primarily consist of employee compensation including stock-based compensation, contractor costs, facilities costs, depreciation of equipment, employer payroll taxes on stock-based compensation, legal expenses, restructuring, insurance premiums and professional fees. Our legal expenses, including those related to various ongoing legal proceedings, may fluctuate substantially from period to period.
The decrease in general and administrative expenses in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily due to the absence of costs related to our CEO transition in 2020 of $33 million and a decrease in charitable contributions of approximately $36 million.
Provision for Transaction Losses
Provision for transaction losses primarily consists of transaction loss expense associated with our buyer protection programs, losses from our managed payments services, fraud and bad debt expense associated with our accounts receivable balance. We expect our provision for transaction losses to fluctuate depending on many factors, including changes to our protection programs and the impact of regulatory changes.
The increase in provision for transaction losses in 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 was primarily due to higher chargeback losses of $81 million incurred for managed payments as we scaled the platform and higher customer protection program costs of $63 million. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in bad debt expense of $52 million as a result of fees collected through the managed payments platform.
Gain (Loss) on Equity Investments and Warrant, net
Gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net primarily consists of gains and losses related to our various types of equity investments, including our equity investments in Adevinta, KakaoBank and Adyen, and gains and losses due to changes in fair value of the warrant received from Adyen. The following table presents gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
Change in fair value of equity investment in Adevinta $ (3,070) ** $ - - % $ -
Gain (loss) on sale of shares in Adevinta (1)
9 ** - - % -
Change in fair value of warrant 354 (54) % 770 ** 133
Change in fair value of equity investment in Adyen (10) ** - - % -
Change in fair value of equity investment in KakaoBank 403 69 % 239 ** -
Gain (loss) on sale of shares in KakaoBank 83 ** - - % -
Impairment of equity investment in Paytm Mall (160) ** - - % -
Gain (loss) on other investments (2)
26 ** (2) ** -
Total gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net $ (2,365) ** $ 1,007 ** $ 133
(1)Gain (loss) on sale of shares in Adevinta included an $88 million gain recognized on the sale of the shares offset by a $79 million loss from the change in fair value of the shares sold through the date of sale.
(2)Gain (loss) on other investments primarily included: (i) in 2021, primarily a $41 million upward adjustment and a $10 million impairment recorded on equity investments without readily determinable fair values; (ii) in 2020, primarily a $40 million impairment recorded on an investment and a $37 million gain for the receipt of proceeds that were held in escrow related to a long-term investment that was sold in 2018.
** Not meaningful
The decrease in gain (loss) on equity method investments and warrant, net in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily driven by a $3.1 billion loss from the change in fair value of our equity investment in Adevinta, a $160 million impairment recorded on our equity investment in Paytm Mall and a $416 million change in the gain related to the Adyen warrant. These decreases were partially offset by a $164 million change in unrealized gain related to our equity investment in KakaoBank and a $83 million gain on sale of a portion of our shares in KakaoBank.
Interest and Other, Net
Interest and other, net primarily consists of interest earned on cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments, as well as foreign exchange transaction gains and losses and interest expense, consisting of interest charges on any amounts borrowed and commitment fees on unborrowed amounts under our credit agreement and interest expense on our outstanding debt securities and commercial paper, if any. The following table presents interest and other, net for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 % Change 2020 % Change 2019
Interest income $ 19 (50) % $ 38 (66) % $ 112
Interest expense (269) (12) % (304) (2) % (311)
Foreign exchange and other 90 ** (32) (38) % (52)
Total interest and other, net $ (160) (46) % $ (298) 19 % $ (251)
** Not meaningful
Interest and other, net expense decreased in 2021 compared to 2020 primarily due to foreign exchange transaction gains and lower interest expense.
Income Tax Provision
The following table presents provision for income taxes for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020 2019
Income tax provision (benefit) $ 146 $ 858 $ 219
Effective tax rate 36.6 % 25.6 % 13.2 %
The increase in our effective tax rate in 2021 compared to 2020 was primarily due to non-deductible losses on investments, partially offset by a benefit from the release of a valuation allowance. The effective tax rate in 2020 included the effects of a retroactive California law change including incremental taxes on the gain on the sale of StubHub, partially offset by an increased tax benefit from stock-based compensation.
We are regularly under examination by tax authorities both domestically and internationally. We believe that adequate amounts have been reserved for any adjustments that may ultimately result from these examinations, although we cannot assure you that this will be the case given the inherent uncertainties in these examinations. Due to the ongoing tax examinations, it is generally impractical to determine the amount and timing of these adjustments. However, we expect several tax examinations to close within the next twelve months. See “Note 15 - Income Taxes” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information on estimated settlements within the next twelve months.
Discontinued Operations
On November 14, 2021, we completed the previously announced sale of 80.01% of the outstanding equity interests of eBay Korea to Emart. We have classified the results of our eBay Korea business as discontinued operations in our consolidated statement of income for the periods presented through November 14, 2021. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations are classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated balance sheet.
On June 24, 2021, we completed the previously announced transfer of our Classifieds business to Adevinta. We have classified the results of our Classifieds business as discontinued operations in our consolidated statement of income for the periods presented through June 24, 2021. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations are classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated balance sheet.
On February 13, 2020, we completed the previously announced sale of our StubHub business to an affiliate of viagogo. Beginning in the first quarter of 2020, StubHub’s financial results for periods prior to the sale have been reflected in our consolidated statement of income as discontinued operations. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations in the prior periods are classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated balance sheet.
See “Note 3 - Discontinued Operations” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for additional information.
Non-GAAP Measures of Financial Performance
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, we use FX-Neutral net revenues, which are non-GAAP financial measures. Management uses the foregoing non-GAAP measures in reviewing our financial results. We define FX-Neutral net revenues as net revenues minus the exchange rate effect. We define exchange rate effect as the year-over-year impact of foreign currency movements using prior period foreign currency rates applied to current year transactional currency amounts, excluding hedging activity.
These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. Non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with our results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. These measures should only be used to evaluate our results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.
These non-GAAP measures are provided to enhance investors’ overall understanding of our current financial performance and its prospects for the future. Specifically, we believe these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding the foreign currency exchange rate impact that may not be indicative of our core operating results and business outlook. In addition, because we have historically reported certain non-GAAP results to investors, we believe that the inclusion of these non-GAAP measures provide consistency in our financial reporting.
The following tables present a reconciliation of FX-Neutral GMV and FX-Neutral net revenues (each as defined below) to our reported GMV and net revenues for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020
As Reported Exchange Rate Effect (1)
FX-Neutral (2)
As Reported As Reported % Change FX-Neutral % Change
GMV $ 87,365 $ 2,362 $ 85,003 $ 87,608 - % (3) %
Net Revenues:
Net transaction revenues (3)
$ 9,772 $ 180 $ 9,592 $ 8,243 19 % 17 %
Marketing services and other revenues 648 8 640 651 - % (2) %
Total net revenues $ 10,420 $ 188 $ 10,232 $ 8,894 17 % 15 %
Year Ended Year Ended December 31,
2020 2019
As Reported Exchange Rate Effect (1)
FX-Neutral (2)
As Reported As Reported % Change FX-Neutral % Change
GMV $ 87,608 $ 46 $ 87,562 $ 72,134 21 % 21 %
Net Revenues:
Net transaction revenues (3)
$ 8,243 $ 25 $ 8,218 $ 6,581 25 % 26 %
Marketing services and other revenues 651 1 650 848 (23) % (23) %
Total net revenues $ 8,894 $ 26 $ 8,868 $ 7,429 20 % 21 %
(1)We define exchange rate effect as the year-over-year impact of foreign currency movements using prior period foreign currency rates applied to current year transactional currency amounts, excluding hedging activity.
(2)We define FX-Neutral GMV as GMV minus the exchange rate effect. We define the non-GAAP financial measures of FX-Neutral net revenues as net revenues minus the exchange rate effect.
(3)Net transaction revenues were net of $65 million, $15 million and $81 million of hedging activity in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash Flows
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020 2019
(In millions)
Net cash provided by (used in):
Continuing operating activities $ 3,093 $ 3,004 $ 2,416
Continuing investing activities (1,417) (179) 2,900
Continuing financing activities (6,557) (5,680) (7,087)
Effect of exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 24 77 (33)
Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash - discontinued operations
4,669 3,376 581
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ (188) $ 598 $ (1,223)
Continuing Operating Activities
Our operating cash flows arise primarily from cash received from our customers on our platforms offset by cash payments for sales and marketing, employee compensation and payment processing expenses.
Cash provided by continuing operating activities of $3.1 billion in 2021 compared to $3.0 billion in 2020 was primarily attributable to an increase in operating income from continuing operations of $287 million. The increase in operating income from continuing operations was primarily due to an increase in revenues, primarily as a result of the migration of managed payments on a global basis and the associated higher take rate as noted in our comments in “Net Transaction Revenues.” The remaining changes in continuing operating cash flows were attributable to changes in non-cash items and favorable working capital movements due to lower accounts receivable from the migration to managed payments and lower accrued liabilities.
Continuing Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities of $1.4 billion in 2021 was primarily attributable to purchases of investments of $22.2 billion and property and equipment of $444 million. These purchases were partially offset by proceeds of $18.9 billion from the maturities and sales of investments and $2.3 billion from the sale of approximately 135 million of our voting shares in Adevinta.
Cash used in investing activities of $0.2 billion in 2020 was primarily attributable to cash paid for purchases of investments of $32.9 billion and property and equipment of $463 million, offset by proceeds of $33.1 billion from the maturities and sales of investments.
The largely offsetting effects of purchases of investments and maturities and sale of investments results from the management of our investments. As our immediate cash needs change, purchase and sale activity will fluctuate.
Continuing Financing Activities
Cash used in financing activities of $6.6 billion in 2021 was primarily driven by common stock repurchases of $7.1 billion, of which $2.5 billion related to repurchases under an accelerated share repurchase program. Cash used in financing activities also included debt repayments of $1.2 billion, which was comprised of $750 million related to our 6.000% senior fixed rate notes due 2056 that were redeemed and $405 million related to our 2.600% senior fixed rate notes due 2022 that were repurchased pursuant to a tender offer, and $466 million of cash dividends paid, partially offset by proceeds from debt issuances of $2.5 billion.
Cash used in financing activities of $5.7 billion in 2020 was primarily used to repurchase $5.1 billion of common stock, repay outstanding debt of $1.8 billion and pay $447 million of cash dividends, partially offset by proceeds from debt issuances of $1.8 billion.
The positive effect of exchange rate movements on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, primarily the euro, during 2021 and 2020.
Liquidity and Capital Resource Requirements
As of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, we had assets classified as cash and cash equivalents, as well as short-term and long-term non-equity investments from continuing operations, in an aggregate amount of $7.3 billion and $3.8 billion, respectively. We believe that our cash, cash equivalents and short-term and long-term investments, together with cash expected to be generated from operations, borrowings available under our credit agreement and commercial paper program, and our access to capital markets, will be sufficient to satisfy our material cash requirements over the next 12 months and for the foreseeable future.
However, COVID-19 and related measures to contain its impact have caused material disruptions in both national and global financial markets and economies. The future impact of COVID-19 and these containment measures cannot be predicted with certainty and may increase our borrowing costs and other costs of capital and otherwise adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and we cannot assure that we will have access to external financing at times and on terms we consider acceptable, or at all, or that we will not experience other liquidity issues going forward.
Senior Notes
As of December 31, 2021, we had floating- and fixed-rate senior notes outstanding with varying maturities for an aggregate principal amount of $9.1 billion, with $1.4 billion payable within 12 months. Future interest payments associated with the senior notes total $2.5 billion, with $0.2 billion payable within 12 months. The net proceeds from the issuances of these senior notes are used for general corporate purposes, including, among other things, capital expenditures, share repurchases, repayment of indebtedness and possible acquisitions.
In February 2022, we redeemed the $750 million aggregate principal amount of the 3.800% senior notes due March 2022. Total cash consideration paid was $750 million as the redemption price was equal to 100% of the principal amount. In addition, we paid accrued and unpaid interest on the principal amount.
Commercial Paper
We have a commercial paper program pursuant to which we may issue commercial paper notes in an aggregate principal amount at maturity of up to $1.5 billion outstanding at any time with maturities of up to 397 days from the date of issue. As of December 31, 2021, there were no commercial paper notes outstanding.
Credit Agreement
In March 2020, we entered into a credit agreement that provides for an unsecured $2 billion five-year credit facility. We may also, subject to the agreement of the applicable lenders, increase commitments under the revolving credit facility by up to $1 billion. Funds borrowed under the credit agreement may be used for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes. As of December 31, 2021, no borrowings were outstanding under our $2 billion credit agreement.
Credit Ratings
As of December 31, 2021, we were rated investment grade by Standard and Poor’s Financial Services, LLC (long-term rated BBB+, short-term rated A-2, with a stable outlook) and Moody’s Investor Service (long-term rated Baa1, short-term rated P-2, with a stable outlook). We disclose these ratings to enhance the understanding of our sources of liquidity and the effects of our ratings on our costs of funds. Our borrowing costs depend, in part, on our credit ratings and any actions taken by these credit rating agencies to lower our credit ratings will likely increase our borrowing costs.
We were in compliance with all financial covenants in our outstanding debt instruments for the period ended December 31, 2021. For additional details related to our debt, please see “Note 10 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Leases
We have operating leases for office space, data centers, as well as other corporate assets that we utilize under lease arrangements. As of December 31, 2021, we had fixed lease payment obligations of $366 million, with $156 million payable within 12 months. For additional details related to our leases, please see “Note 11 - Leases” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Purchase Obligations
Purchase obligation amounts include minimum purchase commitments for advertising, capital expenditures (computer equipment, software applications, engineering development services, construction contracts) and other goods and services entered into in the ordinary course of business. As of December 31, 2021, we had purchase obligations of $151 million, with $125 million payable within 12 months.
Income Taxes
We are unable to reasonably predict the timing of settlement of liabilities related to unrecognized tax benefits of $318 million included in other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2021. The timing of the resolution and/or closure of audits is highly uncertain, and it is reasonably possible that the balance of gross unrecognized tax benefits could significantly change in the next 12 months. However, given the number of years remaining subject to examination and the number of matters being examined, we are unable to estimate the full range of possible adjustments to the balance of gross unrecognized tax benefits.
As of December 31, 2021, our assets classified as cash and cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term non-equity investments from continuing operations included assets held in certain of our foreign operations totaling approximately $5.0 billion. As we repatriate these funds to the U.S., we will be required to pay income taxes in certain U.S. states and applicable foreign withholding taxes on those amounts during the period when such repatriation occurs. We have accrued deferred taxes for the tax effect of repatriating the funds to the U.S.
See “Note 15 - Income Taxes” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information on unrecognized tax benefits and deferred taxes.
Stock Repurchases
Our stock repurchase programs are intended to programmatically offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programs and, subject to market conditions and other factors, to make opportunistic and programmatic repurchases of our common stock to reduce our outstanding share count. Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programs will be funded from our working capital or other financing alternatives.
We expect, subject to market conditions and other uncertainties, to continue making opportunistic and programmatic repurchases of our common stock. However, our stock repurchase programs may be limited or terminated at any time without prior notice. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including corporate and regulatory requirements, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, price and other market conditions and management’s determination as to the appropriate use of our cash.
During 2021, we repurchased approximately $7.0 billion of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, including the accelerated repurchase agreement we entered into during the fourth quarter of 2021. As of December 31, 2021, a total of approximately $2.0 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. In February 2022 our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program, with no expiration from the date of authorization. See “Note 13 - Stockholders’ Equity” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information about our stock repurchase programs.
Dividends
The company paid a total of $466 million and $447 million in cash dividends in 2021 and 2020, respectively. In February 2022, we declared a cash dividend of $0.22 per share of common stock to be paid on March 18, 2022 to stockholders of record as of March 10, 2022.
Other Capital Resource Requirements
We actively monitor all counterparties that hold our cash and cash equivalents and non-equity investments, focusing primarily on the safety of principal and secondarily on improving yield on these assets. We diversify our cash and cash equivalents and investments among various counterparties in order to reduce our exposure should any one of these counterparties fail or encounter difficulties. To date, we have not experienced any material loss or lack of access to our invested cash, cash equivalents or short-term investments; however, we can provide no assurances that access to our invested cash, cash equivalents or short-term investments will not be impacted by adverse conditions in the financial markets, including, without limitation, as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. At any point in time we have funds in our operating accounts and customer accounts that are deposited and invested with third party financial institutions.
We have a cash pooling arrangement with a financial institution for cash management purposes. As of December 31, 2021, we had a total of $3.7 billion in aggregate cash deposits, partially offset by $3.5 billion in cash withdrawals, held within the financial institution under the cash pooling arrangement. See “Note 12 - Commitments and Contingencies” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information about our cash pooling arrangement.
We have entered into various indemnification agreements and, in the ordinary course of business, we have included limited indemnification provisions in certain of our agreements with parties with which we have commercial relations. It is not possible to determine the maximum potential loss under these various indemnification provisions due to our limited history of prior indemnification claims and the unique facts and circumstances involved in each particular provision. To date, losses recorded in our consolidated statement of income in connection with our indemnification provisions have not been significant, either individually or collectively. See “Note 12 - Commitments and Contingencies” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information about our indemnification provisions.
Critical Accounting Policies, Judgments and Estimates
General
The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related notes requires us to make judgments, estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We have based our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our senior management has discussed the development, selection and disclosure of these estimates with the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
An accounting policy is considered to be critical if it requires an accounting estimate to be made based on assumptions about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the estimate is made, and if different estimates that reasonably could have been used, or changes in the accounting estimates that are reasonably likely to occur periodically, could materially impact the consolidated financial statements. We believe the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. The following descriptions of critical accounting policies, judgments and estimates should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes and other disclosures included in this report.
Revenue Recognition
We may enter into certain revenue contracts that include promises to transfer multiple goods or services including discounts on future services. We also may enter into arrangements to purchase services from certain customers. As a result, significant interpretation and judgment is sometimes required to determine the appropriate accounting for these transactions including: (1) whether services are considered distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately or combined; (2) developing an estimate of the stand-alone selling price of each distinct performance obligation; (3) whether revenue should be reported gross (as eBay is acting as a principal), or net (as eBay is acting as an agent); (4) evaluating whether a promotion or incentive is a payment to a customer; and (5) whether the arrangement would be characterized as revenue or reimbursement of costs incurred. Changes in judgments with respect to these assumptions and estimates could impact the timing or amount of revenue recognition.
Income Taxes
Our annual tax rate is based on our income, statutory tax rates and tax planning opportunities available to us in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. Tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the taxpayer and respective government taxing authorities. Significant judgment is required in determining our tax expense and in evaluating our tax positions, including evaluating uncertainties and the complexity of taxes on foreign earnings. We review our tax positions quarterly and adjust the balances as new information becomes available. Tax positions are evaluated for potential reserves for uncertainty based on the estimated probability of sustaining the position under examination. Our income tax rate is affected by the tax rates that apply to our foreign earnings including U.S. minimum taxes on foreign earnings. The deferred tax benefit derived from the amortization of our intellectual property is based on the fair value, which has been agreed with foreign tax authorities. The deferred tax benefit may from time to time change based on changes in tax rates. Management has no specific plans to indefinitely reinvest the undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries at the balance sheet date.
Deferred tax assets represent amounts available to reduce income taxes payable on taxable income in future years. Such assets arise because of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities, as well as from net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. We evaluate the recoverability of these future tax deductions and credits by assessing the adequacy of future expected taxable income from all sources, including reversal of taxable temporary differences, forecasted operating earnings and available tax planning strategies. These sources of income rely heavily on estimates that are based on a number of factors, including our historical experience and short-range and long-range business forecasts. As of December 31, 2021, we had a valuation allowance on certain net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards based on our assessment that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax asset will not be realized.
We recognize and measure uncertain tax positions in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S., or GAAP, pursuant to which we only recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities, based on the technical merits of the position. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such positions are then measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. We report a liability for unrecognized tax benefits resulting from uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. GAAP further requires that a change in judgment related to the expected ultimate resolution of uncertain tax positions be recognized in earnings in the quarter in which such change occurs. We recognize interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits in income tax expense.
We file annual income tax returns in multiple taxing jurisdictions around the world. A number of years may elapse before an uncertain tax position is audited by the relevant tax authorities and finally resolved. While it is often difficult to predict the final outcome or the timing of resolution of any particular uncertain tax position, we believe that our reserves for income taxes reflect the most likely outcome. We adjust these reserves, as well as the related interest, where appropriate in light of changing facts and circumstances. Settlement of any particular position could require the use of cash.
The following table presents our effective tax rates for the periods indicated (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2021 2020 2019
Income tax provision (benefit) $ 146 $ 858 $ 219
Effective tax rate 36.6 % 25.6 % 13.2 %
Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in countries where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated in countries where we have higher statutory rates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, or by changes or interpretations in tax laws, regulations or accounting principles. In addition, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service, as well as various state and foreign tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes.
Based on our results for the year ended December 31, 2021, a one-percentage point change in our provision for income taxes as a percentage of income before taxes would have resulted in an increase or decrease in the provision of approximately $4 million, resulting in an approximate $0.01 change in diluted earnings per share.
Goodwill
The purchase price of an acquired company is allocated between intangible assets and the net tangible assets of the acquired business with the residual of the purchase price recorded as goodwill.
As of December 31, 2021, our goodwill totaled $4.2 billion. We assess the impairment of goodwill of our reporting unit annually, or more often if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level by first performing a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying value. If the reporting unit does not pass the qualitative assessment, then the reporting unit’s carrying value is compared to its fair value. The fair values of the reporting units are estimated using market and discounted cash flow approaches. Goodwill is considered impaired if the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds its fair value. The discounted cash flow approach uses expected future operating results. The market approach uses comparable company information to determine revenue and earnings multiples to value our reporting unit. Failure to achieve these expected results or market multiples may cause a future impairment of goodwill at the reporting unit. We conducted our annual impairment test of goodwill as of August 31, 2021 and 2020. As of December 31, 2021, we determined that no impairment of the carrying value of goodwill was required. See “Note 4 - Goodwill and Intangible Assets” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Legal Contingencies
In connection with certain pending litigation and other claims, we have estimated the range of probable loss, net of expected recoveries, and provided for such losses through charges to our consolidated statement of income. These estimates have been based on our assessment of the facts and circumstances at each balance sheet date and are subject to change based upon new information and future events.
From time to time, we are involved in disputes and regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business. We are currently involved in legal proceedings, some of which are discussed in “Item 1A: Risk Factors,” “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” and “Note 12 - Commitments and Contingencies” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report. We believe that we have meritorious defenses to the claims against us, and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously. However, even if successful, our defense against certain actions will be costly and could require significant amounts of management’s time and result in the diversion of significant operational resources. If the plaintiffs were to prevail on certain claims, we might be forced to pay significant damages and licensing fees, modify our business practices or even be prohibited from conducting a significant part of our business. Any such results could materially harm our business and could result in a material adverse impact on the financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See "Note 1 - The Company and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" to the consolidated financial statements included in this report, regarding the impact of certain recent accounting pronouncements on our consolidated financial statements.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
ITEM 7A: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest Rate Risk
We are exposed to interest rate risk relating to our investments and outstanding debt. In addition, adverse economic conditions and events (including volatility or distress in the equity and/or debt or credit markets) may impact regional and global financial markets. These events and conditions could cause us to write down our assets or investments. We seek to reduce earnings volatility that may result from adverse economic conditions and events or changes in interest rates.
The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while at the same time improving yields without significantly increasing risk. To achieve this objective, we maintain our cash equivalents and short-term and long-term investments in a variety of asset types, including bank deposits, government bonds and corporate debt securities. As of December 31, 2021, approximately 9% of our total cash and investments was held in cash and cash equivalents. As such, changes in interest rates will impact interest income. As discussed below, the fair market values of our fixed rate securities may be adversely affected due to a rise in interest rates, and we may suffer losses in principal if we are forced to sell securities that have declined in market value due to changes in interest rates.
As of December 31, 2021, the balance of our corporate debt and government bond securities was $5.9 billion, which represented approximately 39% of our total cash and investments. Investments in both fixed-rate and floating-rate interest-earning instruments carry varying degrees of interest rate risk. The fair market value of our fixed-rate investment securities may be adversely impacted due to a rise in interest rates. In general, fixed-rate securities with longer maturities are subject to greater interest rate risk than those with shorter maturities. While floating rate securities generally are subject to less interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, floating-rate securities may produce less income than expected if interest rates decrease and may also suffer a decline in market value if interest rates increase. Due in part to these factors, our investment income may fall short of expectations or we may suffer losses in principal if we sell securities that have declined in market value due to changes in interest rates. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase in interest rates would have resulted in a decrease in the fair value of our investments of $4 million and $5 million as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
As of December 31, 2021, we had an aggregate principal amount of $9.1 billion of outstanding senior notes, of which 96% bore interest at fixed rates. During 2020, we began to hedge the variability of the cash flows in interest payments associated with our floating-rate debt using interest rate swaps. These interest rate swap agreements effectively convert our LIBOR-based floating-rate debt to a fixed-rate basis, reducing the impact of interest-rate changes on future interest expense. The total notional amount of these interest swaps was $400 million as of December 31, 2021 with terms calling for us to receive interest at a variable rate and to pay interest at a fixed rate. Our interest rate swap contracts have maturity dates in 2023. At December 31, 2021, we did not have an unhedged balance on our floating-rate debt. We considered the historical volatility of short-term interest rates and determined that it was reasonably possible that an adverse change of 100 basis points could be experienced in the near term. A hypothetical 1% (100 basis points) decrease in interest rates would have resulted in a decrease in the fair values of our floating to fixed rate interest swaps of approximately $4 million at December 31, 2021.
Further changes in interest rates will impact interest expense on any borrowings under our revolving credit facility, which bear interest at floating rates, and the interest rate on any commercial paper borrowings we make and any debt securities we may issue in the future and, accordingly, will impact interest expense. For additional details related to our debt, see “Note 10 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Equity Price Risk
Equity Investments
On June 24, 2021, we completed the transfer of our Classifieds business to Adevinta. Upon completion of the transfer we received an equity interest in Adevinta. The equity investment is accounted for under the fair value option and changes in Adevinta’s stock price and equity volatility may have a significant impact on the value of our equity investment in Adevinta. As of December 31, 2021, a one dollar change in Adevinta’s common stock, holding other factors constant, would increase or decrease the fair value of the investment by approximately $405 million.
In August 2021 KakaoBank completed its initial public offering, which resulted in this investment having a readily determinable fair value. Previously this investment was accounted for as an equity investment without a readily determinable fair value. Valuation of equity investments with readily determinable fair values can be obtained from real time quotes in active markets. Changes in KakaoBank’s stock price and equity volatility may have a significant impact on the value of our equity investment in KakaoBank. As of December 31, 2021, a one dollar change in KakaoBank’s common stock, holding other factors constant, would increase or decrease the fair value of the investment by approximately $14 million.
As further described in the “Warrant” section below, we entered into a warrant agreement in conjunction with a commercial agreement with Adyen that, subject to meeting certain conditions, entitles us to acquire a fixed number of shares up to 5% of Adyen’s fully diluted issued and outstanding share capital at a specific date. In 2021, we met the processing volume milestone target to vest the first tranche of the warrant. Upon vesting of the first tranche, we exercised the option to purchase shares of Adyen valued at $1.1 billion in exchange for approximately $110 million. Our equity investment in Adyen is accounted for as an equity investment with a readily determinable fair value. Changes in Adyen’s common stock price and equity volatility may have a significant impact on the value of the investment. As of December 31, 2021, a one dollar change in Adyen’s common stock, holding other factors constant, would increase or decrease the fair value of the investment by approximately $0.4 million.
Our remaining equity investments are primarily investments in privately-held companies. Our consolidated results of operations include, as a component of gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net, our share of the net income or loss of the equity investments accounted for under the equity method of accounting, or the change in fair value of the equity method investments accounted for under the fair value option. Equity investments without readily determinable fair values are accounted for at cost, less impairment and adjusted for subsequent observable price changes obtained from orderly transactions for identical or similar investments issued by the same investee. Such changes in the basis of the equity investment are recognized in gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net. Equity investments under the fair value option are measured at fair value based on a quarterly valuation analysis and are classified within Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy as the valuation reflects management’s estimate of assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the equity investment. Subsequent changes in fair value are recognized in gain (loss) on equity investments and warrant, net.
As of December 31, 2021, our equity investments totaled $8.0 billion, which represented approximately 52% of our total cash and investments, and primarily related to our equity investment in Adevinta.
For additional details related to our investments, please see “Note 6 - Investments” to our consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Warrant
We entered into a warrant agreement in conjunction with a commercial agreement with Adyen that, subject to meeting certain conditions, entitles us to acquire a fixed number of shares up to 5% of Adyen’s fully diluted issued and outstanding share capital at a specific date. As discussed above, in 2021 we met the processing volume milestone target to vest the first tranche of the warrant, and we exercised the option to purchase shares of Adyen valued at $1.1 billion in exchange for approximately $110 million. The remaining tranches of the warrant are accounted for as a derivative instrument under ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging. Changes in Adyen’s common stock price and equity volatility may have a significant impact on the value of the warrant. As of December 31, 2021, a one dollar change in Adyen’s common stock, holding other factors constant, would increase or decrease the fair value of the warrant by $0.2 million. For additional details related to the warrant, please see “Note 7 - Derivative Instruments” to our consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Foreign Currency Risk
Our commerce platforms operate globally, resulting in certain revenues and costs that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British pound and euro, subjecting us to foreign currency risk, which may adversely impact our financial results. We transact business in various foreign currencies and have significant international revenues as well as costs. In addition, we charge our international subsidiaries for their use of intellectual property and technology and for certain corporate services we provide. Our cash flow, results of operations that are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations may differ materially from expectations and we may record significant gains or losses due to foreign currency fluctuations and related hedging activities.
We have a foreign exchange exposure management program designed to identify material foreign currency exposures, manage these exposures and reduce the potential effects of currency fluctuations on our reported consolidated cash flows and results of operations through the purchase of foreign currency exchange contracts. The effectiveness of the program and resulting usage of foreign exchange derivative contracts is at times limited by our ability to achieve cash flow hedge accounting. For additional details related to our derivative instruments, please see “Note 7 - Derivative Instruments” to our consolidated financial statements included in this report.
We use foreign exchange derivative contracts to help protect our forecasted U.S. dollar-equivalent earnings from adverse changes in foreign currency exchange rates. These hedging contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse currency exchange rate movements. Most of these contracts are designated as cash flow hedges for accounting purposes. For qualifying cash flow hedges, the derivative’s gain or loss is initially reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) and subsequently reclassified into earnings in the same period the forecasted transaction affects earnings. For contracts not designated as cash flow hedges for accounting purposes, the derivative’s gain or loss is recognized immediately in earnings in our consolidated statement of income. However, only certain revenue and costs are eligible for cash flow hedge accounting.
The following table illustrates the fair values of outstanding foreign exchange contracts designated as cash flow hedges and the before-tax effect on fair values of a hypothetical adverse change in the foreign exchange rates that existed as of December 31, 2021. The sensitivity for foreign currency contracts is based on a 20% adverse change in foreign exchange rates, against relevant functional currencies.
Fair Value Asset/(Liability) Fair Value Sensitivity
(In millions)
Foreign exchange contracts - Cash flow hedges $ 87 $ (113)
Since our risk management programs are highly effective, the potential loss in value described above would be largely offset by changes in the value of the underlying exposure.
We also use foreign exchange contracts to offset the foreign exchange risk on our assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of our subsidiaries. These contracts reduce, but do not entirely eliminate, the impact of currency exchange rate movements on our assets and liabilities. The foreign currency gains and losses on the assets and liabilities are recorded in interest and other, net, which are offset by the gains and losses on the foreign exchange contracts.
We considered the historical trends in currency exchange rates and determined that it was reasonably possible that adverse changes in exchange rates of 20% for all currencies could be experienced in the near term. These changes would have resulted in an adverse impact on income before income taxes of approximately $13 million as of December 31, 2021 taking into consideration the offsetting effect of foreign exchange forwards in place as of December 31, 2021.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
ITEM 8: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
The consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes listed in Part IV, Item 15(a)(1) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
ITEM 9: CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
None.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
ITEM 9A: CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures: Based on the evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in the Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act) required by Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(b) or 15d-15(b), our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2021.
Changes in internal controls: There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting as defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f) that occurred during our most recently completed fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Management’s annual report on internal control over financial reporting: Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on its evaluation under the framework in Internal Control - Integrated Framework, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2021.
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears in Item 15(a)1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 9B: OTHER INFORMATION
Not applicable.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ITEM 10: DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2021.
Code of Ethics, Governance Guidelines and Committee Charters
We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that applies to all eBay employees and directors. The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is posted on our website at https://investors.ebayinc.com/corporate-governance/governance-documents/. We will post any amendments to or waivers from the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics at that location.
We have also adopted Governance Guidelines for the Board of Directors and a written committee charter for each of our Audit Committee, Compensation and Human Capital Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Each of these documents is available on our website at https://investors.ebayinc.com/corporate-governance/governance-documents/.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
ITEM 11: EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2021.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
ITEM 12: SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2021.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
ITEM 13: CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2021.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
ITEM 14: PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
Incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2021.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
ITEM 15: EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULE
a.The following documents are filed as part of this report:
Page Number
1. Consolidated Financial Statements:
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID 238)
Consolidated Balance Sheet 57
Consolidated Statement of Income 58
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 59
Consolidated Statement of Stockholders’ Equity 60
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 61
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 63
2. Financial Statement Schedule
Schedule II - Valuation and Qualifying Accounts 115
All other schedules have been omitted because the information required to be set forth therein is not applicable or is shown in the financial statements or notes thereto.
3. Exhibits Required by Item 601 of Regulation S-K
The information required by this Item is set forth in the Index to Exhibits that precedes the signature page of this Annual Report. 116
b.The information required by this Item is set forth in the Index to Exhibits that precedes the signature page of this Annual Report.
c.Financial Statement Schedule and Separate Financial Statements of Subsidiaries Not Consolidated and
Fifty Percent or Less Owned Persons
Adevinta was deemed a significant equity investee under Rule 3-09 of Regulation S-X for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2021. As such, financial statements of Adevinta are required to be filed by amendment to this Annual Report on Form 10-K within six months of Adevinta’s fiscal year end. Accordingly, Adevinta’s financial statements for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 will be filed via an amendment to this Annual Report on Form 10-K on or before June 30, 2022.