French-born Iranian-American millionaire Pierre Morad Omidyar (born Parviz Morad Omidyar on June 21, 1967) was born in France. Ebay’s founder is a technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist.
Honolulu Civil Beat, Omidyar’s investigative reporting and public affairs news service, has been his primary focus since 2010.
According to his announcements in 2013, Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremiah Scahill would be joining forces with him to form First Look Media.
Adolescence and Schooling
Omidyar was born in Paris, the son of Iranian parents who had emigrated to France to pursue further education with the hope of starting a new life.
Parviz was the name of the young man. At the Sorbonne, his mother, Elahé Mir-Djalali Omidyar, got her doctorate in the study of language. An accomplished surgeon by profession, Cyrus Omidyar was educated and trained in France and is the father of Omidyar’s son.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was the place where Omidyar’s father worked as a urologist after moving to the US as a child. Aliso Viejo, California, is currently his place of business for him.
Over the course of a few years, Omidyar went to Punahou School in Honolulu. (He is now a member of the Board of Trustees).
At The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, he first became interested in computers while he was a ninth-grade student. It was at Potomac, Maryland, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School that he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1984.
In 1988, he received a B.S. in computer science from Tufts University and an M.S. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Career
As soon as Omidyar graduated from Berkeley, he began working for Claris, a division of Apple. He was a member of the team that worked on the MacDraw II improvement from the original MacDraw.
In 1991, he co-founded Ink Development, a pen-based computer firm that was later rebranded as an e-commerce company and renamed eShop Inc.
On June 11, 1996, Microsoft paid less than $50 million for eShop, and Omidyar made $1 million from the purchase.
Creating the Online Retailer eBay
At the age of 28, Omidyar began to build the original computer code for an online auction site that would allow collectors to sell their wares directly to each other via direct auction. An online prototype was constructed by him. During Labor Day weekend, September 4, 1995, he established Auction Web, an online service that would later be known as eBay.
In the beginning, the service appeared on Omidyar’s auction site eBay.com. Additionally, he has a section on his website specifically devoted to information on the Ebola virus.
A damaged laser pointer was the first thing to sell on eBay. Omidyar was surprised that anyone would pay for a damaged laser pointer, but the buyer informed him that he was collecting broken laser pointers for his collection.
After that, there were more surprises. As correspondents began to register a wide range of trade commodities, the business boomed.
This site’s growth was made possible in part thanks to Omidyar’s incorporation of his business. Within nine months, Omidyar had made enough money to leave General Magic and focus solely on his new venture.
A total of 250,000 bids had taken place on the site by the time Omidyar negotiated a licensing agreement to provide airline tickets online in 1996. Two million people visited in the first month of 1997. Nearly 800,000 auctions a day were being held on eBay by the middle of the year at that time
Later in Life
In 1996, Jeffrey Skoll became a part of the organization. When Meg Whitman was hired in March 1998, she was promoted to president and CEO.
She served as CEO of the company until she announced her retirement in January 2008. Both Omidyar and Skoll became multi-billionaires after eBay’s successful IPO in September 1998.
In 2002, eBay purchased the online payment service PayPal. In 2015, they separated PayPal. Six percent of its value is still owned by Omidyar.
Omidyar’s 178 million eBay shares were worth $4.45 billion as of July 2008, according to Bloomberg.com. One of Omidyar’s investments in Laguna Beach, California, is Montage Resort and Spa.
Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council includes Omidyar as a member of the 21st Century Council of Berggruen.
In 2020, as part of a bigger reorganization at eBay, Omidyar resigned from the board of directors. Despite this, he has maintained his position as director emeritus.
Businesses in The News Media Industry
An online investigative reporting news service called Honolulu Civil Beat was founded by Omidyar in 2010. 2010-2012: Best News Website in Hawaii for this site.
A relationship between Honolulu Civil Beat and HuffPost Hawaii was formed on September 4, 2013.
After the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013, Omidyar announced that First Look Media, a new journalistic company, will be formed.
The Omidyar Group’s
to provide folks the chance to improve their own life. Pam Omidyar, Omidyar’s wife, spearheaded the initiative in 2004.
As a catalyst for societal, economic, and political change, this organization invests in and scales innovative companies.
Over the past few years, Omidyar Network has invested more than $992 million in for-profit businesses.
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The Value of Pierre Omidyar’s Property
He was rated 24th on Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people in 2021, with a net worth of $21.8 billion.
Pierre Omidyar will be valued at $9.8 billion by the year 2022.
Pierre Omidyar’s Private Life
Pamela Omidyar and her husband Omidyar own residences in Henderson and Honolulu, Nevada. In January 2019, Forbes estimated his wealth at $13.1 billion.
Democratic Party candidates and organizations have received a large portion of his financial contributions.
Dalai Lama disciple Omidyar, who signed The Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, says he intends to give away the majority of his money while he is still alive. The total amount he gave to charity in 2019 was almost $4.5 billion.
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Achievements
- Honorary doctorate, Tufts University (2011)
- 1999 EY Entrepreneur of The Year National Winner
- 2000 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council
- member Quincy Jones.
- 2018’s Third Most Influential French Entrepreneur by Richtopia.