EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1065088
Filing Year: 2021
Filename: 1065088_10-K_2021_0001065088-21-000006.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. Notably, on February 13, 2020, we completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and on July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”). We believe that the transaction with Adevinta will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
eBay Inc. 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 South Korea, 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).
Agreement to Transfer eBay Classifieds Group
On July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 540 million shares in Adevinta. Together, the total consideration payable under the definitive agreement is valued at approximately $9.2 billion, based on the closing trading price of Adevinta’s outstanding shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange on July 17, 2020. We believe that the transaction will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Please see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “The closing of the proposed transfer of our Classifieds business is subject to various risks and uncertainties, may not be completed in accordance with expected plans or on the currently contemplated terms or timeline, or at all, and may not generate the anticipated returns to eBay, and the pending transfer may be disruptive to our Classifieds business.”
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 185 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 successfully closed sales and our growth drivers of managed payments 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 (as discussed below, “GMV”), while increasing the rate of revenue growth through our managed payments and advertising initiatives, and delivering healthy operating margins. Following the announcement of the StubHub and Classifieds transactions, we stated our intention as an enterprise focused on our Marketplace platforms to embark on a multi-year journey to build more compelling experiences for our consumers, become the partner of choice for sellers and strengthen trust in relationships with buyers.
eBay’s managed payments has continued to expand and scale globally following the expiration of the PayPal Operating Agreement in July 2020, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Starting with five of our largest markets - the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada - we have focused on transitioning business sellers to the new payments platform, and we launched managed payments for consumer sellers in the fourth quarter of 2020. As a result, as of December 31, 2020 there were over 1 million sellers active in managed payments. We also announced the first quarter of 2021 expansion plans to France, Italy, and Spain, along with enablement for eBay for Charity sellers in the U.S. and U.K. to leverage the experience. Through managed payments, we’re able to provide a simpler experience for current and next-generation customers, consistent with today’s retail standards. We can offer buyers more flexibility and choice in how they’d like to pay and offer sellers a more streamlined way to run their businesses. We continue to be on track to intermediate payments for the majority of our sellers in 2021 and to complete the full roll-out for payments by 2022.
Our advertising business remains focused on growing our Promoted Listings (a first-party advertising offering) while reducing non-strategic, third-party advertising. We are providing sellers with data-driven recommendations to optimize their conversion, 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 buyers and sellers that align with our approach to becoming the partner of choice for sellers and driving trusted buyer relationships. These offerings are designed to build trust and confidence on our platform, and drive GMV.
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, and Australia, through a qualifying payment method. eBay also provides buyers with a “Best Price Guarantee,” which offers buyers in the U.S. 110% of the price difference if they find an item for less on a competitor’s website within 48 hours of making a purchase. In Australia, Best Price Guarantee beats deals from approved retailers by 5%, and in the U.K., offers price matching. In 2020, eBay launched "Authenticity Guarantee," our new independent authentication service on all watches sold over $2,000 in the U.S., and expanded the service to the collectible sneakers category, authenticating select sneaker styles and brands on the marketplace. Additionally, to meet consumer demand for top products, eBay launched a new destination to feature officially “Certified Refurbished” products from top brands.
On the eBay Marketplace platforms, the majority of transactions in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany include free shipping for buyers, and we encourage sellers to offer free returns. We also work to create confidence in our ability to meet buyers’ delivery and tracking expectations. In the U.K. and Australia, we launched eBay Virtual Tracking Number to substantially increase package tracking and provide buyers and sellers with ease and confidence.
To become the partner of choice for sellers, eBay continuously invests in resources and programs to grow and enhance the seller tools ecosystem. Seller initiated offers allows sellers to send custom deals directly to buyers, and we launched several new features in this offering and drove $1.25 billion in GMV in 2020. Additionally, a new collaboration with UPS launched in the U.S., helps provide sellers with more options to support their shipping needs and access to discounted rates, saving them time and money. We supported seller profitability during the holiday season by working with the carriers on our platform to eliminate peak season shipping surcharges on eBay. For sellers, eBay also launched new features like “Image Clean-Up,” using computer vision to enable sellers to create cleaner images in their listing and optimize for Google Shopping and “Time Away,” which allows sellers to update their listings and protect their on-time delivery record while they are on vacation and provides buyers with more accurate shipping estimates. Seller Hub capabilities continue to grow with the launch of several new features such as expanded “Multi-User Account Access” authentication capabilities, real-time competitive pricing, and traffic data and enhancement of our competitive pricing analytics to include the search of item specifics in addition to Terapeak.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we put specific seller protections in place to support our sellers’ businesses during carrier delays, not penalizing sellers for delayed shipping or canceled orders to protect their seller performance standards. To accommodate for United States Postal Service (USPS) delays, we protected sellers to ensure they were covered for any shipping defects and delays beyond their control by automatically extending estimated delivery dates as necessary to give buyers more reasonable expectations of when their items will arrive. We also waited to evaluate any “item not received” cases until after the extended, estimated delivery date.
To help sellers keep positive momentum in their business during the pandemic, we increased the number of monthly, zero insertion fee listings that we provide to most sellers. We also allowed all eBay Store subscribers to list additional, fixed price listings for free in order to test new inventory that buyers may be searching for in the COVID-19 environment, and we offered monthly, zero insertion fee listings in select categories for sellers enrolled in managed payments.
In 2020, eBay launched new features like Dark Mode to ease the shopping experience and create more accessibility for our customers; “Great Price Signal” to highlight competitively priced items from trusted sellers; and “Secure Local PickUp” to help connect local buyers and sellers, allowing them to receive items quicker and more secure through the use of a QR code. More than 1,000,000 QR codes have been scanned since Secure Local Pickup’s launch in July. eBay’s Developer Program launched new APIs for managed payments, Offers to Buyers, eBay for Charity, and more, for developers to help their businesses thrive with eBay.
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 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 program.
eBay for Charity empowers buyers and sellers to support charities around the world. In 2020, eBay for Charity matched donations made to Feeding America, Direct Relief, and Opportunity Fund, and offered U.S. shoppers the opportunity to buy Gifts That Give Back to support COVID-19 relief efforts. In 2020, nearly $123 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. In 2020, the eBay Foundation granted over $16 million to support small businesses, untapped communities, and COVID-19 relief efforts, and offered an additional $2,500 per employee in matching gifts for a total of up to $5,000 per employee. To date, the eBay Foundation has awarded more than $65 million to more than 1,800 nonprofits.
We are champions of inclusive commerce and in 2020, born out of the pandemic and an extension of our Retail Revival program, we launched the Up & Running initiative to help more small businesses start and grow online. Through the program, new eBay sellers received fee discounts and resources to run their business on eBay. The Up & Running program saw global adaptations in over 25 markets around the world, and expanded efforts with the Up & Running Grants program, which will reward a number of eBay U.S. small business sellers a grant package worth $10,000.
eBay continued its work to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025. We joined the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Program. 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 on the DJSI World and North American Indices, and ranked on the CDP A list.
Financial Information
We measure our footprint in our addressable market according to GMV. GMV consists of the total value of all successfully closed transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period, regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually completed the transaction. In 2020, we generated $100 billion in GMV, of which approximately 62 percent was generated outside the U.S. We believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of closed transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period, notwithstanding the inclusion in GMV of closed transactions that are not ultimately consummated.
At the end of 2020, eBay had 185 million active buyers and over 19 million sellers. In 2020, we had approximately 1.6 billion live listings globally. The term “active buyer” means, as of any date, all buyer accounts that successfully closed a transaction on Marketplace 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”) businesses and individual sellers on the platform.
We generate revenue primarily from the transactions we successfully enable and through marketing services, and our growth initiatives of payments and advertising. The majority of our revenue comes from a take rate on the GMV of transactions closed 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 2020
We regularly review and manage our investments to ensure that they support eBay’s strategic direction and complement our disciplined approach to value creation, profitability and capital allocation. In the first quarter of 2020, eBay completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. In the third quarter of 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer eBay Classifieds Group to Adevinta; see “Agreement to Transfer eBay Classifieds Group” above for more details.
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, classifieds, 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 nine additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2020, some buyers across the U.S. encounter sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, more than 40 states have implemented Internet sales tax and digital service tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Italy, India and Turkey in 2020, and we are complying with the legislation. In the U.K. the government also approved the law to introduce a 2% DST. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements could create additional burdens for buyers and 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” and “Our business and its users are subject to Internet sales tax and sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.”
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 “Systems failures or cyberattacks 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 items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, may harm our business,” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing risk from patent litigation and allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”
Human Capital Management
As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 12,700 people globally. Approximately 6,000 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 cultural 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
In 2020, after engaging with our workforce, customers, and investors, CEO Jamie Iannone introduced “Our DNA”, a framework to link all employees to our purpose, our role in people’s lives, our strategic vision, and our beliefs.
Our Purpose: We empower people and create economic opportunity for all
Our Role in People’s Lives: A marketplace that brings people together to spark unexpected joy
Our Strategic Vision: Become the best global marketplace for buyers and sellers through a tech-led re-imagination of eBay
Our Beliefs: These beliefs reflect our culture at its best and our shared desire to be part of a company with a wonderful, 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
Pandemic Response
Adapting to working during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major focus of our people programs. When companies were required to close their workplaces, eBay quickly moved to facilitate our people working from home. eBay provided equipment, systems, and resources for home connection, including for our customer experience team members who all shifted to working from home. In 2020, eBay made two payments to all employees to allow them to cover individual needs and well-being. We also increased work flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities and provided 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. In recognition of the extraordinary circumstances affecting the team, we also provided an additional paid day off globally for all employees and contractors.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
eBay’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program is focused on three strategic areas - workforce, workplace and marketplace. Equity is 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. Starting with a comprehensive diversity recruiting strategy, we review and enhance processes, including deepening data insights, updating learning and development practices and a new governance model to ensure that a diverse set of candidates are connected to eBay and can see themselves as being successful here. 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 fifth Global Diversity & Inclusion report for publication later this year that shares stories and workforce data.
Acting with Integrity
We reaffirmed and expanded our commitment to ethics and acting with integrity in 2020. We took big and small actions to ensure that we are open, honest, ethical and authentic with a company-wide webinar meeting and a series of leadership trainings with an outside ethics expert, 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’s 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 as well as ethics and integrity. Our employees highly value eBay’s approach to Impact and Responsibility and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion discussed earlier in the report. 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.
•Our success depends to a large degree on our ability to successfully address the rapidly evolving market for transactions on mobile devices.
•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.
•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 risks from patent litigation and 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.
•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 items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, 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 may be subject to sales and other taxes and we may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
•Our business and its users are subject to Internet sales tax and sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.
•The closing of the proposed transfer of our Classifieds business may not be completed in accordance with expected plans or on the currently contemplated terms or timeline, or at all, and may not generate the anticipated returns to eBay.
•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 risks set forth in this “Risk Factors” section. 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.
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 easily can 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 companies. As we respond to changes in the competitive environment, we may, from time to time, make pricing, service 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 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, 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 will suffer.
Competitors with other revenue sources may also be able to devote more resources to marketing and promotional campaigns, 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 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. 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, Zalando and Coupang, 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 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. 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 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 have not adversely affected our consolidated results of operations to date. Additionally, to date, 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. 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 the majority 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, Australia and South Korea, 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;
•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 Brazil/Latin America, 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); 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.
Our success depends to a large degree on our ability to successfully address the rapidly evolving market for transactions on mobile devices.
Mobile devices are increasingly used for ecommerce transactions. A significant and growing portion of our users access our platforms through mobile devices. We may lose users if we are not able to continue to meet our users’ mobile and multi-screen experience expectations. The variety of technical and other configurations across different mobile devices and platforms increases the challenges associated with this environment. In addition, a number of other companies with significant resources and a number of innovative startups have introduced products and services focusing on mobile markets.
Our ability to successfully address the challenges posed by the rapidly evolving market for mobile transactions is crucial to our continued success, and any failure to continuously increase the volume of mobile transactions effected through our platforms could harm our business.
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 offer growth opportunities, such as our new payments and advertising offerings. 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.
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 slowly beginning to be clarified in some jurisdictions and may be higher in some non-U.S. jurisdictions than it is in the United States. 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.
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 tools 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 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.
Our ability to expand our payments services into additional countries is dependent upon the third-party providers we use to support this service. 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 expand the availability of our payments services to additional markets or offer new payment methods to our sellers and buyers in the future, we may become subject to additional regulations and compliance requirements, and exposed to heightened fraud risk, which could lead to an increase in our operating expenses.
We rely on third-party service providers to perform services related to compliance, 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 risks from patent litigation and 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 a number of 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 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 buyer protection program, which in the United States we refer to as the eBay Money Back Guarantee, or as we roll out our new payments capabilities, by compensating our sellers for fraudulent payments. 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 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 carry low coverage limits, which 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 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, 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.
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, billing, ecommerce, 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.
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 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 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. 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, 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 or will have investments in other companies (such as Adevinta and Adyen) 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 items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, 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.
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 may be subject to sales and other taxes.
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 and gross receipt tax to ecommerce businesses 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. In many cases, it is not clear how existing statutes apply to ecommerce services. In addition, many state and foreign governments are looking for ways to increase revenues, which has resulted in legislative action, including new taxes on services and gross revenues and through other indirect taxes. There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain.
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.
Similar issues exist outside of the United States, where the application of VAT or other indirect taxes on ecommerce providers is complex and evolving. 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.
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.
Our business and its users are subject to Internet sales tax and sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.
The application of sales tax and other indirect taxes on cross border sales by remote sellers is continuing to change and evolve. On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. et al., a case challenging the current law under which online retailers are not required to collect sales and use tax unless they have a physical presence in the buyer’s state. This decision allows states to adopt new or enforce existing laws requiring sellers to collect and remit sales and use tax, even in states in which the seller has no presence. The adoption or enforcement of any such legislation could result in a sales and use tax collection responsibility for certain of our sellers. This collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms and could harm our business. Moreover, the application of such taxes on our commerce platforms could cause a marketplace to be less attractive to current and prospective buyers, which could adversely impact our business, financial performance, and growth. The majority of U.S. states have enacted laws or have pending legislation that require marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales tax for some or all sellers using these marketplaces.
Similar laws imposing tax collection responsibility on foreign sellers are being considered in other countries as well. We are now jointly liable for U.K. VAT and German VAT for certain sellers who fail to fulfill their VAT obligations unless we suspend their eBay activity until the seller resolves the matter with the corresponding VAT authority. Other jurisdictions are considering similar legislation.
Multiple jurisdictions have enacted laws which require marketplaces to report user activity or collect and remit taxes on certain items sold on the marketplace. The U.K. and European Union have also adopted a VAT reform package which starting in 2021 requires marketplaces such as eBay to collect and remit VAT on most imports from outside the European Union.
One or more states, the U.S. federal government or foreign countries may seek to impose reporting or record-keeping obligations on companies that engage in or facilitate ecommerce. Such an obligation could be imposed by legislation intended to improve tax compliance or if one of our companies was ever deemed to be the legal agent of the users of our services by a jurisdiction in which it operates. Certain of our companies are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) and most states on customers subject to U.S. income tax if they reach certain payment thresholds. As a result, we are required to request tax identification numbers from certain payees, track payments by tax identification number and, under certain conditions, withhold a portion of payments and forward such withholding to the IRS. These obligations can increase operational costs and change our user experience. Any failure by us to meet these requirements could result in substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions and could harm our business. Imposition of an information reporting requirement could decrease seller or buyer activity on our sites and would harm our business.
Transactional Risks
The closing of the proposed transfer of our Classifieds business is subject to various risks and uncertainties, may not be completed in accordance with expected plans or on the currently contemplated terms or timeline, or at all, and may not generate the anticipated returns to eBay, and the pending transfer may be disruptive to our Classifieds business.
We believe the transaction will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021. However, the completion of the transaction is subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. We cannot assure you that the conditions to the closing of the transaction will be satisfied and, if those conditions are neither satisfied nor, where permissible, waived on a timely basis or at all, we may be unable to complete the transfer of the Classifieds business, or such completion may be delayed or completed on terms that are less favorable, perhaps materially, to us than the terms currently contemplated.
If the proposed transfer of the Classifieds business is delayed or not completed for any reason, including due to our or Adevinta’s inability to satisfy the closing conditions set forth in the transaction agreement or industry or economic conditions outside of our control, including those related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, investor confidence could decline and we could face negative publicity and possible litigation. In addition, in the event of a failed transaction, we will have expended significant management resources in an effort to complete the transaction and, although in some circumstances Adevinta may be obligated to pay us a termination fee of $92 million, we will have incurred significant transaction costs. Accordingly, if the proposed transaction of the Classifieds business is not completed on the timeline or terms currently contemplated, or at all, our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and stock price may be adversely affected.
Upon closing of the transaction to transfer the Classifieds business, we will receive approximately 540 million Adevinta shares and, depending on how we ultimately determine to account for our ownership interest in Adevinta, 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.
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. We have also disposed of significant businesses and recently announced a portfolio review of our Korea business. 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; 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 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.
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 24 other countries around the world. We use the properties for executive and administrative offices, data centers, product development offices, fulfillment centers 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. As of December 31, 2020, our owned and leased properties provided us with aggregate square footage for our continuing operations as follows (in millions):
United States Other Countries Total
Owned facilities 1.3 - 1.3
Leased facilities 0.7 3.4 4.1
Total facilities 2.0 3.4 5.4
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 13 - 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 1, 2021, there were approximately 3,411 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 $447 million and $473 million in cash dividends during the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. In February 2021, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.18 per share of common stock to be paid on March 19, 2021 to stockholders of record as of March 1, 2021. 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, 2015 (the last trading day for the year ended December 31, 2015) 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
Stock repurchase activity during the three months ended December 31, 2020 was as follows:
Period Ended Total Number of
Shares
Purchased Average Price Paid
per Share (2)
Total Number of
Shares Purchased
as Part of Publicly
Announced
Programs Maximum Dollar
Value that May Yet
be Purchased Under
the Programs (1)
October 31, 2020 250,675 $ 47.63 250,675 $ 2,440,568,444
November 30, 2020 4,216,131 $ 48.67 4,216,131 $ 2,235,384,642
December 31, 2020 4,014,404 $ 50.41 4,014,404 $ 2,033,023,506
8,481,210 8,481,210
(1)In January 2019 our Board authorized a $4.0 billion stock repurchase program and in January 2020 our Board authorized an additional $5 billion stock repurchase program. These stock repurchase programs have no expiration from the date of authorization.
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, 2020, we repurchased approximately $419 million of our common stock under our stock repurchase program. As of December 31, 2020, a total of approximately $2.0 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase program. During February 2021, our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program, with no expiration from the date of authorization.
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.
(2)Excludes broker commissions.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6: SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The consolidated statement of income data for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements. The consolidated statement of income data for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 have been adjusted for discontinued operations. The consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements. The consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 have been adjusted for discontinued operations. The consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 has been adjusted for the adoption of the ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606).
Year Ended December 31,
2020 2019 2018 (5)
2017 (4)(6)
2016 (4)(7)
(In millions, except per share amounts)
Consolidated Statement of Income Data: (1)
Net revenues $ 10,271 $ 8,636 $ 8,650 $ 8,009 $ 7,568
Gross profit 7,798 6,500 6,627 6,156 5,883
Income from operations 2,711 1,861 1,752 1,852 1,960
Income from continuing operations before income taxes 3,420 1,749 2,249 1,864 3,290
Income (loss) from continuing operations 2,542 1,516 2,128 (1,997) 7,056
Income (loss) per share from continuing operations:
Basic $ 3.58 $ 1.79 $ 2.17 $ (1.88) $ 6.23
Diluted $ 3.54 $ 1.77 $ 2.15 $ (1.88) $ 6.17
Weighted average shares:
Basic 710 849 980 1,064 1,133
Diluted 718 856 991 1,064 1,144
As of December 31,
2020 2019 2018 (5)
2017 (4) (6)
2016 (4) (7)
(In millions)
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: (1)
Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,428 $ 901 $ 2,067 $ 1,964 $ 1,775
Short-term investments 2,398 1,850 2,713 3,743 5,333
Long-term investments 833 1,275 3,747 6,299 3,945
Working capital - continuing operations 2,452 726 2,683 4,226 5,152
Working capital - held for sale 9 32 52 43 31
Working capital - discontinued operations - (118) (63) (84) (173)
Working capital total (2)(3)
2,461 640 2,672 4,185 5,010
Total assets - continuing operations 18,122 16,654 21,086 24,072 22,941
Total assets - held for sale 1,188 1,073 1,204 1,372 519
Total assets - discontinued operations - 447 529 542 391
Total assets 19,310 18,174 22,819 25,986 23,851
Short-term debt 18 1,020 1,546 781 1,451
Long-term debt 7,745 6,738 7,685 9,234 7,509
Total stockholders’ equity 3,561 2,870 6,281 8,049 10,526
Dividends declared per share: $ 0.64 $ 0.56 $ - $ - $ -
(1)Includes the impact of acquisitions and dispositions. For a summary of recent significant acquisitions and dispositions, please see “Note 3 - Business Combinations” and “Note 4 - Discontinued Operations” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
(2)Working capital is calculated as the difference between total current assets and total current liabilities.
(3)Reflects the impact of the adoption of the new lease accounting standard in 2019 which was adopted prospectively.
(4)Reflects the impact of the adoption of the new revenue recognition accounting standard in 2018.
(5)The consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 includes the impact of a $463 million reduction to the provisional current and deferred tax liabilities recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a $120 million reduction in 2018 to the deferred tax asset recognized in 2017 as a result of a tax rate change. The consolidated statement of income data for the year ended December 31, 2018 includes a $463 million income tax benefit and $120 million tax expense associated with such current and deferred tax liabilities and assets, respectively.
(6)The consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2017 includes the impact of a $695 million deferred tax asset recognized in 2017 as a result of our voluntary domiciling our Classifieds intangible assets into a new jurisdiction. The consolidated statement of income data for the year ended December 31, 2017 includes tax expense of $376 million caused by the foreign exchange remeasurement of our deferred tax assets and a $3.1 billion provisional tax expense associated with the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
(7)The consolidated balance sheet data for the year ended December 31, 2016 includes the impact of a $4.6 billion deferred tax asset recognized in 2016 as a result of our election to terminate an existing tax ruling and finalize a new agreement with the foreign tax authority. The consolidated statement of income data for the year ended December 31, 2016 includes a $4.6 billion income tax benefit associated with such deferred tax asset.

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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 including our strategic review). 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.
OVERVIEW
Business
eBay Inc., is a global commerce leader, which includes our Marketplace platforms, that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world, empowering people and creating opportunity for all. 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. Our technologies and services are designed to provide buyers choice and a breadth of relevant inventory from around the globe and to enable sellers worldwide to organize and offer their inventory for sale, virtually anytime and anywhere. In 2020, eBay enabled $100 billion of Gross Merchandise Volume.
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. See “Note 4 - Discontinued Operations” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for additional information.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic, which continues to spread throughout the world. While the disruption is currently expected to be temporary, there is uncertainty around its duration. As a result of COVID-19 mobility restrictions globally, there have been changes in consumer behavior that have resulted in more online shopping. We expect these changes in behavior to continue to evolve as the pandemic progresses. Our Marketplace platforms experienced improved traffic and buyer acquisition due to the ongoing impact of measures taken globally to contain the spread of COVID-19. The Marketplace platforms also experienced improved acquisition of small business sellers. While the impact of COVID-19 has had a positive impact on our reported results, it’s uncertain whether this consumer behavior will continue. The impacts seen to date may continue to create volatility in our results and a wider range of 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 twelve months 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 July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”) for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 540 million shares in Adevinta. These shares would represent, approximately 44% of Adevinta’s total outstanding shares and approximately 33% of Adevinta’s outstanding voting shares, based on the number of Adevinta’s outstanding shares as of June 30, 2020. Together, the total consideration payable under the definitive agreement is valued at
approximately $9.2 billion, based on the closing trading price of Adevinta shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange on July 17, 2020. We believe the transaction will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021. Completion of the transaction is subject to certain conditions, including receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other risks and uncertainties. We have classified the results of our Classifieds business as discontinued operations in our consolidated statement of income for the periods presented. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations are classified as held for sale in our consolidated balance sheet. See “Note 4 - 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.
Our commerce platforms operate globally, resulting in certain revenues that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British pound, euro, Korean won and Australian dollar, subjecting us to foreign currency risk which may impact our financial results. Because of this and the fact that we generate a majority of our net revenues internationally, including during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we are subject to the risks related to doing business in foreign countries as discussed under “Item 1A: Risk Factors.”
The effect of foreign currency exchange rate movements during 2020 was primarily attributable to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Korean won, partially offset by the weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro.
Fiscal Year Highlights
Net revenues increased 19% to $10.3 billion in 2020 compared to 2019, primarily driven by improved traffic and buyer acquisition, which we attribute primarily to global restrictions implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19 which resulted in more online shopping during 2020. FX-Neutral net revenue (as defined above) increased 20% in 2020 compared to 2019. Operating margin increased to 26.4% in 2020 compared to 21.6% in 2019.
We generated cash flow from continuing operating activities of $3.1 billion in 2020 compared to $2.6 billion in 2019, ending the year with cash, cash equivalents and non-equity investments for continuing operations of $4.1 billion.
During 2020, we issued senior unsecured notes of $1.8 billion, which consisted of $800 million of 1.900% fixed rate notes due 2025 and $950 million of 2.700% fixed rate notes due 2030. In addition, we repaid approximately $1.8 billion of debt comprising of $500 million of 2.150% senior fixed rate notes due 2020, $500 million of 3.250% senior fixed rate notes due 2020 and $750 million related to 2.875% senior fixed rate notes due 2021. We also repurchased $5.1 billion of shares and paid $447 million in dividends during 2020.
Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $3.54 in 2020 compared to diluted earnings per share of $1.77 in 2019. In February 2021, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.18 per share of common stock to be paid on March 19, 2021 to stockholders of record as of March 1, 2021.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Net Revenues
Seasonality
We expect transaction activity patterns on our platforms to mirror 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 sets forth, for the periods presented, our total net revenues and the sequential quarterly movements of these net revenues (in millions, except percentages):
Quarter Ended
March 31 June 30 September 30 December 31
Net revenues $ 2,104 $ 2,137 $ 2,107 $ 2,302
Percent change from prior quarter (2) % 2 % (1) % 9 %
Net revenues $ 2,161 $ 2,156 $ 2,083 $ 2,236
Percent change from prior quarter (6) % - % (3) % 7 %
Net revenues $ 2,129 $ 2,668 $ 2,606 $ 2,868
Percent change from prior quarter (5) % 25 % (2) % 10 %
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 presented (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change 2019 % Change 2018
U.S. $ 4,151 26 % 3,303 (2) % $ 3,382
Percentage of net revenues 40 % 38 % 39 %
International 6,120 15 % 5,333 1 % 5,268
Percentage of net revenues 60 % 62 % 61 %
Total net revenues $ 10,271 19 % $ 8,636 - % $ 8,650
Net revenues included $15 million and $81 million of hedging gains and $8 million of hedging losses during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar had a favorable impact of $1 million, an unfavorable impact of $153 million and a favorable impact of $139 million on net revenues for the years December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. The effect of foreign currency exchange rate movements in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily attributable to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Korean won, partially offset by the weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro. The effect of foreign currency exchange rate movements in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily attributable to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, British pound and Korean won.
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 advertisements, revenue sharing arrangements and first-party inventory programs.
The following table presents net revenues by type (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change 2019 % Change 2018
Net transaction revenues $ 9,300 23 % $ 7,578 2 % $ 7,416
Marketing services and other revenues 971 (8) % 1,058 (14) % 1,234
Total net revenues $ 10,271 19 % $ 8,636 - % $ 8,650
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 successfully closed transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period, regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually consummated the transaction. Despite GMV’s divergence from revenue, we still believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of closed transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period, notwithstanding the inclusion in GMV of closed transactions that are not ultimately consummated.
Take rate is defined as net transaction revenues divided by GMV.
The following table presents GMV and take rate for the periods presented (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change
2019 % Change
GMV $ 100,001 17 % $ 85,510 (5) % $ 89,829
Transaction take rate 9.30 % 0.44 % 8.86 % 0.61 % 8.25 %
Net Transaction Revenues
Year Ended December 31, % Change Year Ended December 31, % Change
2020 2019 As Reported FX-Neutral 2019 2018 As Reported FX-Neutral
Net transaction revenues (1)
9,300 7,578 23 % 24 % 7,578 7,416 2 % 4 %
Supplemental data:
GMV 100,001 85,510 17 % 17 % 85,510 89,829 (5) % (2) %
Take rate 9.30 % 8.86 % 0.44 % 8.86 % 8.25 % 0.61 %
(1)Marketplace net transaction revenues were net of $15 million, $81 million and $8 million hedging activity during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 respectively.
Net transaction revenues increased in 2020 compared to 2019 primarily due to an increase in GMV due to improved traffic and buyer acquisition due to global restrictions implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19 which resulted in consumers engaging in more online shopping during 2020 and higher take rate due to the expansion of managed payments and promoted listings. Transaction take rate was higher in 2020 compared to 2019, due to the expansion of managed payments and due to promoted listings, which along with final value fees are calculated as a percentage of an item’s sale price and category mix.
Net transaction revenues increased in 2019 compared to 2018 primarily due to growth in promoted listing fees and a higher take rate. Transaction take rate was higher in 2019 compared to 2018, primarily due to growth in promoted listing fees, 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 2019 compared to 2018 was due to take rate considerations discussed above, despite declining GMV. We expect that the divergence between net transaction revenues and GMV will continue. Despite GMV’s divergence from net transaction revenues during the year, we still believe the metric provides a useful measure of overall volume of closed transactions that flow through the platform in a given period.
Marketing Services and Other Revenues
The following table presents MS&O revenues (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, % Change Year Ended December 31, % Change
2020 2019 As Reported FX-Neutral 2019 2018 As Reported FX-Neutral
MS&O revenues $ 971 $ 1,058 (8) % (8) % $ 1,058 $ 1,234 (14) % (12) %
Percentage of net revenues 9 % 12 % 12 % 14 %
The decrease in MS&O revenues during 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to lower advertising revenues that were driven by our ongoing shift to promoted listing fees, which are recognized in net transaction revenues and the sale of brands4friends in the third quarter of 2019, partially offset by an increase attributable to our first-party inventory program in Korea.
The decrease in MS&O revenues during 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to a decrease in advertising revenues that was driven by our ongoing shift to promoted listing fees, which are recognized in net transaction revenues and lower revenues resulting from the sale of brands4friends. These decreases were partially offset by increases in first-party inventory program in Korea in 2019 compared to 2018.
Cost of Net Revenues
Cost of net revenues primarily consists of costs associated with customer support, site operations, costs of goods sold and payment processing. Significant components of these costs include employee compensation, contractor costs, facilities costs, depreciation of equipment and amortization expense, first party inventory costs, bank transaction fees, credit card interchange and assessment fees and digital services tax. The following table presents cost of net revenues (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change 2019 % Change 2018
Cost of net revenues $ 2,473 16 % $ 2,136 6 % $ 2,023
As a percentage of net revenues 24.1 % 24.7 % 23.4 %
The increase in cost of net revenues in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to an increase in payment processing costs as we continue to transition customers to our payments platform and an increase in cost of goods sold related to our first-party inventory program in Korea. The increase in cost of net revenues was partially offset by lower cost of goods sold due to the sale of brands4friends in the third quarter of 2019.
The increase in cost of net revenues in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to an increase in site operation and payment processing costs as we increased our investments in our business, and an increase in costs of goods sold driven by our first-party inventory program in Korea.
Cost of net revenues, net of immaterial hedging activities, was favorably impacted by $7 million attributable to foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar in 2020 compared to 2019. Cost of net revenues, net of immaterial hedging activities, was favorably impacted by $49 million attributable to foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar in 2018.
Operating Expenses
The following table presents operating expenses (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change 2019 % Change 2018
Sales and marketing $ 2,639 11 % $ 2,368 (8) % $ 2,576
Percentage of net revenues 26 % 27 % 30 %
Product development 1,087 11 % 976 (7) % 1,051
Percentage of net revenues 11 % 11 % 12 %
General and administrative 1,003 - % 1,005 3 % 979
Percentage of net revenues 10 % 12 % 11 %
Provision for transaction losses 331 26 % 262 6 % 247
Percentage of net revenues 3 % 3 % 3 %
Amortization of acquired intangible assets 27 (4) % 28 27 % 22
Total operating expenses $ 5,087 10 % $ 4,639 (5) % $ 4,875
Foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar had a favorable impact of $8 million on operating expenses in 2020 compared to 2019. Operating expenses were favorably impacted by $88 million attributable to foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar in 2019 compared to 2018. There was no hedging activity within operating expenses in 2020 and 2019.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of advertising and marketing program costs (both online and offline), employee 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 expense in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to an increase in online and offline advertising expenses and employee-related costs.
The decrease in sales and marketing expense in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to a favorable impact from foreign currency movements relative to the U.S. dollar and decreases in offline advertising spend and employee-related costs. These costs were partially offset by online marketing spend and user coupons and rewards largely driven by our Japan platform acquired in the second quarter of 2018.
Product Development
Product development expenses primarily consist of employee 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 and improved seller tools and buyer experiences built on a foundation of structured data.
Capitalized internal use and platform development costs were $129 million and $137 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively, and are primarily reflected as a cost of net revenues when amortized in future periods.
The increase in product development expenses in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to an increase in employee-related costs.
The decrease in product development expenses in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to decreases in employee-related costs, foreign currency movement relative to the U.S. dollar and depreciation on equipment.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses primarily consist of employee 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 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to restructuring costs incurred in 2019 related to our global workforce reduction partially offset by charitable contributions and employee related costs.
The increase in general and administrative expenses in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to severance costs incurred in 2019 related to our CEO transition.
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 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to an increase in customer protection program costs as a result of increased volume and bad debt expense.
The increase in provision for transaction losses in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to an increase in bad debt expense.
Interest and Other, Net
Interest and other, net primarily consists of interest earned on cash, cash equivalents and investments, as well as foreign exchange transaction gains and losses, gains and losses due to changes in fair value of the warrant received from Adyen, our portion of operating results from investments accounted for under the equity method of accounting, investment gain/loss on acquisitions or disposals 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 (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 % Change 2019 % Change 2018
Interest income $ 39 (68) % $ 120 (32) % $ 176
Interest expense (305) (2) % (311) (5) % (326)
Gains on investments and sale of business 1,007 ** 80 ** 663
Other (32) ** (1) ** (16)
Total interest and other, net $ 709 ** $ (112) ** $ 497
** Not meaningful
The increase in interest and other, net in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily attributable to the change in the fair value of the Adyen warrant, the change in fair value of our investment in Kakao Bank, the absence of a loss recorded in 2019 for the divestiture of brands4friends and a gain recorded for the receipt of proceeds that were held in escrow related to a long-term investment that was sold in 2018. These increases were partially offset by lower interest income, an impairment recorded on an investment and foreign exchange losses.
The decrease in interest and other, net in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily attributable to the gain recognized on the sale of our investment in Flipkart of $313 million and the relinquishment of our existing equity method investment in Giosis of $266 million that did not occur in 2019, the loss recorded upon the divestiture of brands4friends of $52 million partially offset by the gain recognized due to the change in fair value of the Adyen warrant of $133 million that occurred in 2019.
Income Tax Provision
The following table presents provision for income taxes (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31,
2020 2019 2018
Income tax provision (benefit) $ 878 $ 233 $ 121
Effective tax rate 25.7 % 13.3 % 5.4 %
The increase in our effective tax rate in 2020 compared to 2019 was primarily due to tax rate changes enacted in the fourth quarter which resulted in a net tax charge as our deferred tax assets were remeasured to the new rates. Additionally, our tax rate increased due to the effects of a retroactive California law change which resulted in incremental tax on the gain on the sale of StubHub. These impacts were partially offset by a reduction in the 2019 effective tax rate from the effective settlements of audits, and a benefit due to the enacted New York state legislation regarding the taxability of foreign earnings.
The increase in our effective tax rate in 2019 compared to 2018 was primarily due to the $463 million reduction in 2018 to the provisional tax amounts recorded in 2017 related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the gain recognized from the relinquishment of our existing equity method investment in Giosis that was not subject to U.S. federal income tax on a current basis that did not recur in 2019 and certain expenses in 2019. These impacts were partially offset by a reduction in the 2019 by the effective tax rate from the effective settlements of audits and a benefit due to the enacted New York state legislation regarding the taxability of foreign earnings.
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 16 - 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 24, 2019, we entered into a stock purchase agreement with an affiliate of viagogo to sell our StubHub business. The sale of our StubHub business was completed on February 13, 2020. 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 4 - Discontinued Operations” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for additional information.
On July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement with Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”) to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 540 million shares in Adevinta. Together, the total consideration payable under the definitive agreement is valued at approximately $9.2 billion, based on the closing trading price of Adevinta’s outstanding shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange on July 17, 2020. We believe the transaction will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021. Completion of the transaction is subject to certain conditions, including receipt of certain regulatory approvals, and other risks and uncertainties, including general industry and economic conditions outside our control. As a result, we have classified the results of our Classifieds business as discontinued operations in our consolidated statement of income for the periods presented. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the discontinued operations are classified as held for sale in our consolidated balance sheet. See “Note 4 - 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 set forth 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 presented (in millions, except percentages):
Year Ended December 31, 2020 Year Ended December 31, 2019
As Reported
Exchange Rate Effect (1)
FX-Neutral (2)
As Reported
As Reported % Change
FX-Neutral % Change
GMV $ 100,001 $ (237) $ 100,238 $ 85,510 17 % 17 %
Net Revenues:
Net transaction revenues (3)
$ 9,300 $ 5 $ 9,295 $ 7,578 23 % 24 %
Marketing services and other revenues 971 (4) 975 1,058 (8) % (8) %
Total net revenues $ 10,271 $ 1 $ 10,270 $ 8,636 19 % 20 %
Year Ended December 31, 2019 Year Ended December 31, 2018
As Reported
Exchange Rate Effect (1)
FX-Neutral (2)
As Reported
As Reported % Change
FX-Neutral % Change
GMV $ 85,510 $ (2,745) $ 88,255 $ 89,829 (5) % (2) %
Net Revenues:
Net transaction revenues (3)
$ 7,578 $ (123) $ 7,701 $ 7,416 2 % 4 %
Marketing services and other revenues 1,058 (30) 1,088 1,234 (14) % (12) %
Total net revenues $ 8,636 $ (153) $ 8,789 $ 8,650 - % 1 %
(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 $15 million, $81 million and $8 million of hedging activity in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash Flows
Year Ended December 31,
2020 2019 2018
(In millions)
Net cash provided by (used in):
Continuing operating activities $ 3,146 $ 2,583 $ 2,210
Continuing investing activities (219) 2,922 2,922
Continuing financing activities (5,690) (7,093) (5,398)
Effect of exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 77 (33) (75)
Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash - discontinued operations
3,284 398 420
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 598 $ (1,223) $ 79
Continuing Operating Activities
Cash provided by continuing operating activities of $3.1 billion in 2020 was primarily attributable to net income of $5.7 billion with adjustments for income from discontinued operations of $3.1 billion, $609 million in depreciation and amortization, $431 million in stock-based compensation, $408 million for deferred income taxes and $331 million in provision for transaction losses, partially offset by a decrease of $168 million in changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisition effects, and $770 million for changes in the fair value of the Adyen warrant.
Cash provided by continuing operating activities of $2.6 billion in 2019 was primarily attributable to net income of $1.8 billion with adjustments for income from discontinued operations of $270 million, $629 million in depreciation and amortization, $431 million in stock-based compensation, $262 million in provision for transaction losses, $52 million loss on the sale of a business, partially offset by a decrease of $169 million in changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisition effects, and $133 million for changes in the fair value of the Adyen warrant.
Cash provided by continuing operating activities of $2.2 billion in 2018 was primarily attributable to net income of $2.5 billion with adjustments for income from discontinued operations of $402 million, $635 million in depreciation and amortization, $465 million in stock-based compensation and $247 million in provision for transaction losses, partially offset by a decrease of $503 million in changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisition effects, and adjustments of $573 million for gain on investments, $104 million for deferred income taxes and $104 million for changes in fair value of the Adyen warrant.
Cash paid for income taxes in 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $520 million, $270 million and $556 million, respectively. Cash paid for income taxes in 2018 included tax payments related to our liability for deemed repatriation of foreign earnings under U.S. tax reform of $168 million, including a prepayment of $72 million.
Continuing Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities of $219 million in 2020 was primarily attributable to cash paid for purchases of investments of $32.9 billion and property and equipment of $494 million, partially offset by proceeds of $33.1 billion from the maturities and sales of investments.
Cash provided by investing activities of $2.9 billion in 2019 was primarily attributable to proceeds of $50.5 billion from the maturities and sales of investments, partially offset by cash paid for purchases of investments of $47.0 billion, property and equipment of $523 million and an equity investment in Paytm Mall of $160 million.
Cash provided by investing activities of $2.9 billion in 2018 was primarily attributable to proceeds of $30.9 billion from the maturities and sales of investments and $1.0 billion from the sale of equity investment in Flipkart, partially offset by cash paid for purchases of investments of $28.1 billion, property and equipment of $623 million and acquisitions of $302 million.
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 $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.
Cash used in financing activities of $7.1 billion in 2019 was primarily used to repurchase $5.0 billion of common stock, repay outstanding debt of $1.6 billion and pay $473 million of cash dividends.
Cash used in financing activities of $5.4 billion in 2018 was primarily used to repurchase $4.5 billion of common stock and repay $750 million of our outstanding senior notes.
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 Korean won and euro, during 2020. The negative effect of exchange rate movements on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, primarily the Korean won, euro and British pound during
2019. The negative effect of exchange rate movements on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, primarily the euro, Korean won and British pound, during 2018.
Stock Repurchases
In January 2019, our Board authorized a $4.0 billion stock repurchase program and in January 2020, our Board authorized an additional $5.0 billion stock repurchase program. These stock repurchase programs have no expiration from the date of authorization.
On February 13, 2020, we entered into accelerated share repurchase agreements (the “ASR Agreements”) with each three financial institutions (each, an “ASR Counterparty”), as part of our share repurchase program. Under the ASR Agreements, we paid an aggregate amount of $3.0 billion to the ASR Counterparties and received an initial delivery of approximately 69 million shares of our common stock, which shares were recorded as a $2.55 billion increase to treasury stock. The remaining $450 million was evaluated as an unsettled forward contract indexed to our own stock, classified within stockholders’ equity. In July 2020, the ASR Agreements settled and resulted in approximately 74 million shares repurchased at an average price per share of $40.77 and the forward contract was settled and recorded as an increase to treasury stock.
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 2020, we repurchased approximately $5.1 billion of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. As of December 31, 2020, a total of approximately $2.0 billion remained available for future repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs. In February 2021, our Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion stock repurchase program, with no expiration from the date of authorization.
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.
Dividends
The company paid a total of $447 million and $473 million in cash dividends during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. No cash dividends were paid in 2018. In February 2021, we declared a cash dividend of $0.18 per share of common stock to be paid on March 19, 2021 to stockholders of record as of March 1, 2021.
Senior Notes
As of December 31, 2020, we had floating- and fixed-rate senior notes outstanding for an aggregate principal amount of $7.8 billion. 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. The floating rate notes are not redeemable prior to maturity. On and after March 1, 2021, we may redeem some or all of the 6.000% fixed rate notes due 2056 at any time and from time to time prior to their maturity, at a redemption price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the notes to be redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest. We may redeem some or all of the other fixed rate notes of each series at any time and from time to time prior to their maturity, generally at a make-whole redemption price plus accrued and unpaid interest. If a change of control triggering event (as defined in the applicable senior notes) occurs with respect to the 3.800% fixed rate notes due 2022, the floating rate notes due 2023, the 2.750% fixed rate notes due 2023, the 1.900% fixed rate notes due 2025, the 3.600% fixed rate notes due 2027, the 2.700% fixed rate notes due 2030 or the 6.000% fixed rate notes due 2056, we must, subject to certain exceptions, offer to repurchase all of the notes of the applicable series at a price equal to 101% of the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest. For additional details related to our senior notes, please see “Note 11 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
On January 29, 2021, the company announced that it issued a notice of redemption for the $750 million aggregate principal amount of the 6.000% senior notes due 2056. The effective date of this redemption will be March 1, 2021.
To help achieve our interest rate risk management objectives, in connection with the previous issuance of certain senior notes, we entered into interest rate swap agreements that effectively converted $2.4 billion of the fixed rate notes to floating rate debt based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) plus a spread. These swaps were designated as fair value hedges against changes in the fair value of certain fixed rate senior notes resulting from changes in interest rates. As of December 31, 2019, we had no interest rate swaps designated as fair value hedges outstanding as $1.15 billion related to our 2.200% senior notes of the $2.4 billion aggregate notional amount matured in 2019 and in 2019 we terminated the interest rate swaps related to $750 million of our 2.875% senior notes due July 2021 and $500 million of our 3.450% senior notes due July 2024. As a result of the early termination, hedge accounting was discontinued prospectively and the gain on termination was recorded as an increase to the long-term debt balance and is being recognized over the remaining life of the underlying debt as a reduction to interest expense. The gain recognized was immaterial during the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. For additional details related to the interest rate swap termination, please see, “Note 11 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
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, 2020 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.
The indenture pursuant to which the senior notes were issued includes customary covenants that, among other things and subject to exceptions, limit our ability to incur, assume or guarantee debt secured by liens on specified assets or enter into sale and lease-back transactions with respect to specified properties, and also includes customary events of default with customary grace periods in certain circumstances, including payment defaults and bankruptcy-related defaults.
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, 2020, 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. The credit agreement replaced our prior $2 billion unsecured revolving credit agreement dated November 2015, which was terminated effective March 2020.
As of December 31, 2020, no borrowings were outstanding under our $2 billion credit agreement. However, as described above, we have an up to $1.5 billion commercial paper program and are required to maintain available borrowing capacity under our credit agreement in order to repay commercial paper borrowings in the event we are unable to repay those borrowings from other sources when they become due, in an aggregate amount of $1.5 billion. However, as of December 31, 2020, no borrowings were outstanding under our commercial paper program; therefore, $2 billion of borrowing capacity was available for other purposes permitted by the credit agreement, subject to customary conditions to borrowing. The credit agreement includes a covenant limiting our consolidated leverage ratio to no more than 4.0:1.0, subject to, upon the occurrence of a qualified material acquisition, if so elected by us, a step-up to 4.5:1.0 for the four fiscal quarters completed following such qualified material acquisition. The credit agreement includes customary events of default, with corresponding grace periods in certain circumstances, including payment defaults, cross-defaults and bankruptcy-related defaults. In addition, the credit agreement contains customary affirmative and negative covenants, including restrictions regarding the incurrence of liens and subsidiary indebtedness, in each case, subject to customary exceptions. The credit agreement also contains customary representations and warranties.
We were in compliance with all financial covenants in our outstanding debt instruments for the period ended December 31, 2020.
Credit Ratings
As of December 31, 2020, 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), Moody’s Investor Service (long-term rated Baa1, short-term rated P-2, with a stable outlook), and Fitch Ratings, Inc. (long-term rated BBB, short-term rated, 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, as described above, will likely increase our borrowing costs.
Commitments and Contingencies
We have certain fixed contractual obligations and commitments that include future estimated payments for general operating purposes. Changes in our business needs, contractual cancellation provisions, fluctuating interest rates, and other factors may result in actual payments differing from the estimates. We cannot provide certainty regarding the timing and amounts of these payments. The following table summarizes our fixed contractual obligations and commitments for our continuing operations (in millions):
Payments Due During the Year Ending December 31, Debt Leases Purchase Obligations Total
2021 $ 974 $ 196 $ 66 $ 1,236
2022 1,931 170 18 2,119
2023 1,280 116 15 1,411
2024 867 45 - 912
2025 889 34 - 923
Thereafter 3,197 42 - 3,239
$ 9,138 $ 603 $ 99 $ 9,840
The significant assumptions used in our determination of amounts presented in the above table are as follows:
•Debt amounts include the principal and interest amounts of the respective debt instruments. For additional details related to our debt, please see “Note 11 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report. This table does not reflect any amounts payable under our $2 billion revolving credit facility or $1.5 billion commercial paper program, for which no borrowings were outstanding as of December 31, 2020.
•Lease amounts include payments for our operating and finance leases for office space, data centers, as well as fulfillment centers and other corporate assets that we utilize under lease arrangements. The amounts presented are consistent with contractual terms and are not expected to differ significantly from actual results under our existing leases, unless a substantial change in our headcount needs requires us to expand our occupied space or exit an office facility early.
•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 we are unable to reasonably predict the timing of settlement of liabilities related to unrecognized tax benefits, net, the table does not include $295 million of such non-current liabilities included in other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2020. The timing of the resolution and/or closure of audits is highly uncertain, 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. See “Note 16 - Income Taxes” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report for more information on unrecognized tax benefits.
Liquidity and Capital Resource Requirements
As of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, 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 $4.1 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, this amount included assets held in certain of our foreign operations totaling approximately $3.1 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.
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 believe that our existing 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 fund our operating activities, anticipated capital expenditures, repayment of debt and stock repurchases 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.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of December 31, 2020, we had no off-balance sheet arrangements that have, or are reasonably likely to have, a current or future material effect on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources.
We have a cash pooling arrangement with a financial institution for cash management purposes. This arrangement allows for cash withdrawals from the financial institution based upon our aggregate operating cash balances held within the same financial institution (“Aggregate Cash Deposits”). This arrangement also allows us to withdraw amounts exceeding the Aggregate Cash Deposits up to an agreed-upon limit. The net balance of the withdrawals and the Aggregate Cash Deposits are used by the financial institution as a basis for calculating our net interest expense or income under the arrangement. As of December 31, 2020, we had a total of $5.2 billion in aggregate cash deposits, partially offset by $4.9 billion in cash withdrawals, held within the financial institution under the cash pooling arrangement.
Indemnification Provisions
We entered into a separation and distribution agreement and various other agreements with PayPal to govern the separation and relationship of the two companies. These agreements provide for specific indemnity and liability obligations and could lead to disputes between us and PayPal, which may be significant. In addition, the indemnity rights we have against PayPal under the agreements may not be sufficient to protect us and our indemnity obligations to PayPal may be significant.
In addition, we have entered into indemnification agreements with each of our directors, executive officers and certain other officers. These agreements require us to indemnify such individuals, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law, for certain liabilities to which they may become subject as a result of their affiliation with us.
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, including our standard marketing, promotions and application-programming-interface license agreements. Under these contracts, we generally indemnify, hold harmless and agree to reimburse the indemnified party for losses suffered or incurred by the indemnified party in connection with claims by a third party with respect to our domain names, trademarks, logos and other branding elements to the extent that such marks are applicable to our performance under the subject agreement. In certain cases, we have agreed to provide indemnification for intellectual property infringement. It is not possible to determine the maximum potential loss under these 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.
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. As a result of U.S. tax reform and the current U.S. taxation of deemed repatriated earnings, 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, 2020, 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 illustrates our effective tax rates:
Year Ended December 31,
2020 2019 2018
(In millions, except percentages)
Income tax provision (benefit) $ 878 $ 233 $ 121
Effective tax rate 25.7 % 13.3 % 5.4 %
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, 2020, 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 $34 million, resulting in an approximate $0.05 change in diluted earnings per share.
Goodwill and Intangible Assets
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. The determination of the value of the intangible assets acquired involves certain judgments and estimates. These judgments can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future and the appropriate weighted average cost of capital.
As of December 31, 2020, our goodwill totaled $4.7 billion and our identifiable intangible assets, net totaled $12 million. 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, 2020 and 2019. As of December 31, 2020, we determined that no impairment of the carrying value of
goodwill for any reporting units was required. See “Note 5 - 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 13 - 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 investments 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, 2020, approximately 31% 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, 2020, the balance of our corporate debt securities was $2.5 billion, which represented approximately 55% 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 $5 million and $8 million as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
As of December 31, 2020, we had an aggregate principal amount of $7.8 billion of outstanding senior notes, of which 95% bore interest at fixed rates. In 2014, we entered into $2.4 billion of interest rate swap agreements that had an economic effect of modifying the fixed interest obligations associated with $1.15 billion of our 2.200% senior notes due July 2019, $750 million of our 2.875% senior notes due July 2021, and $500 million of our 3.450% senior notes due July 2024 so that the interest payable on those notes effectively became variable based on LIBOR plus a spread. In July 2019, $1.15 billion of the $2.4 billion aggregate notional amount matured and we terminated the interest rate swaps related to $750 million of our 2.875% senior notes due July 2021 and $500 million of our 3.450% senior notes due July 2024, which were designated as fair value hedges. As a result of the early termination, hedge accounting was discontinued prospectively and the gain on termination was recorded as an increase to the long-term debt balance and is being recognized over the remaining life of the underlying debt as a reduction to interest expense. The gain recognized was immaterial for the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.
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, 2020 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, 2020, we did not have an unhedged balance on our floating-rate debt.
During 2020, we began to hedge the variability of forecasted interest payments using forward-starting interest rate swaps. The notional amount of these swaps was $700 million as of December 31, 2020, with terms calling for us to receive interest at a variable rate and to pay interest at a fixed rate. These interest rate swaps effectively fix the benchmark interest rate on anticipated debt issuance in 2022, and they will be terminated upon issuance of the debt. When entering into forward-starting interest rate swaps, we are subject to market risk with respect to changes in the underlying benchmark interest rate that impacts the fair value of the forward-starting interest rate swaps. We manage market risk by matching the terms of the swaps with the terms of the expected debt issuance. 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 forward-starting and floating to fixed rate interest swaps of approximately $61 million at December 31, 2020.
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 11 - Debt” to the consolidated financial statements included in this report.
Equity Price Risk
Equity Investments
Our equity investments are primarily investments in privately-held companies. Our consolidated results of operations include, as a component of interest and other, net, our share of the net income or loss of the equity investments accounted for under the equity method of accounting. 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 interest and other, net. As of December 31, 2020, our equity investments totaled $547 million, which represented approximately 12% of our total cash and investments, and were primarily related to equity investments without readily determinable fair values.
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. The 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 may have a significant impact on the value of the warrant. As of December 31, 2020, a one dollar change in Adyen’s common stock, holding other factors constant, would increase or decrease the fair value of the warrant by approximately $1 million. For additional details related to the warrant, please see “Note 8 - 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, euro, Korean won and Australian dollar, 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 and certain of our intercompany balances 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 8 - 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 net investment 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, 2020. 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 $ 9 $ (139)
Foreign exchange contracts - Net investment hedges $ (2) $ (54)
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 $52 million as of December 31, 2020 taking into consideration the offsetting effect of foreign exchange forwards in place as of December 31, 2020.

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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, 2020.
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, 2020.
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears in Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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

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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 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2020.
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 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 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2020.

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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 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2020.

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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 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2020.

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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 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year ended December 31, 2020.
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:
1. Consolidated Financial Statements:
Page Number
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 59
Consolidated Balance Sheet 61
Consolidated Statement of Income 62
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 63
Consolidated Statement of Stockholders’ Equity 64
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 65
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 67
2. Financial Statement Schedule
Schedule II - Valuation and Qualifying Accounts 107
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. 108