eBay to Hold Investor Day, First Since Activist Investor Attacks

eBay will hold its first Investor Day since it was subjected to an activist investor campaign in 2019. This year’s Investor Day will take place in March and will feature presentations by eBay CEO Jamie Iannone, Chief Financial Officer Steve Priest, and the executive leadership team.

Sessions will focus on eBay’s long-term strategic priorities, growth drivers, and ESG initiatives, alongside the Company’s financial outlook and capital allocation framework, according to Monday’s press release. (Note that ESG is corporate lingo for “Environmental, Social, and Governance.”)

Interestingly, the announcement comes exactly 2 days after the 3-year anniversary of Elliott Management’s letter to the eBay board eviscerating its management, which kicked off the campaign to pressure eBay to sell off assets. A lot has happened in those intervening years, including the sell-off of Stub Hub and eBay Classifieds and a cyberstalking scandal that contributed to the departure of then CEO Devin Wenig and other executives.

The last time eBay held an investor day was in 2013 when it had three core businesses: eBay, GSI Commerce, and PayPal. At the event, then-CEO John Donahoe outlined a 3-year growth strategy. But thanks to an activist investor campaign by Carl Icahn in 2014, eBay was forced to split up the company in 2015 (which is why eBay has rolled out Managed Payments).

eBay also announced it will release fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 financial results on February 23, which is a good 3 weeks later than usual – perhaps in part because it is changing how it calculates GMV (sales).

The eBay 2022 Virtual Investor Day will take place on March 10, 2022 at 8 am PST.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.