Does Amazon Own eBay? (All You Need to Know)

eBay offers an intuitive marketplace for buyers and sellers to come together, while Amazon offers a broader range of products from third-party vendors as well as their own products. Find out how Amazon and eBay differ and learn more about the rivalry between these two juggernauts of e-commerce today!

Two brands dominate the minds of online shoppers—Amazon and eBay. Despite their differences in approach, many consumers view both businesses as among the greatest options for online shopping. Given Amazon's history of buying up its rivals, you might wonder if the online retailer owns eBay. We were wondering the same; the following is what we uncovered.

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Does Amazon Own eBay?

Amazon and eBay are two distinct companies without any relation. Amazon, therefore, does not own eBay. The two companies, however, have both dominated the industry and are fierce competitors of each other. Though the two companies share a lot in common, particularly in the user experience created on their sites, they differ in how they run their business.

Amazon functions more like a traditional retailer, whereas eBay functions more like an auction house. Additionally, Amazon is more centered around the customer, whereas eBay is more oriented around the seller. Still don't get how the two companies differ. Worry not; this post covers all you need to know about the two companies.

How Do Amazon And eBay Differ?

The e-commerce sector in the United States is growing more than ever. Only in 2020, Americans spent over $791 billion just on online shopping. This trend resulted in an increased share of overall retail sales being captured by online shopping than ever before. Amazon and eBay have both benefited greatly from the rising trend in online shopping.

However, Amazon has greatly outpaced eBay regarding net sales, with Amazon reporting about $470 billion, whereas eBay trails behind with only $10.3 billion for the year 2021. Both companies operate as online shopping sites, where customers can browse through the available listed products.

On Amazon, you will find products from Amazon’s own privately labeled brands, such as Amazon Basics, and products from third-party vendors on the marketplace. eBay, on the other hand, only lists products from third-party sellers. The following are some of Amazon’s brands.

A for Awesome: Deals with kid’s clothing.
Amazon Basics: Retailer of furniture, office equipment, and consumer electronics.
Amazon Elements: Deals with domestic products such as baby wipes and diapers.
Wag: Deals with dog food.
Amazon Fresh: Grocery and home goods delivery service.
Happy Belly: Deals with snack food items and milk products.
Goodthreads: Men's clothing line accessible to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Another main difference between the two companies is that eBay has an auction functionality that lets the highest bidder win. Amazon does not have such functionality, so all products are sold at the same price.

Has Amazon Previously Tried To Acquire eBay?

In 2020, Forbes speculated that Amazon would buy eBay and was in a position to do it in cash. However, this never happened, and aside from the speculations, Amazon has never tried to acquire eBay. There is no confirmed report of Amazon or any other company trying to acquire eBay. eBay has, however, accepted deals to sell part of the company.

For instance, in July 2020, eBay Classifieds was sold to Adevinta for $9.2 billion. In November 2015, a Consortium purchased eBay Enterprise for $925 million. Lastly, eBay sold its ticket exchange business, StubHub, to Viagogo for $4.05 billion. Due to these sales, eBay may be open to acquisitions in the future.

It should, however, be noted that eBay is currently worth around $21 billion. If Amazon were to acquire the business, it would set a new record high, surpassing the $13.7 billion price paid by Amazon to acquire Whole Foods. Seeing that Amazon has spent nearly $33.5 billion on acquisitions, acquiring Amazon would be an easy undertaking for the second most profitable company in the United States.

However, if the acquisition were to happen, it would probably not be any time soon. EBay still has a huge market share and boasts of its large network of buyers and sellers.

Can Amazon Acquire eBay?

Amazon’s acquisition of eBay would be a great deal for many reasons. For one, eBay operates primarily as a marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers. This would be a boost for Amazon’s own marketplace. Amazon’s in-house logistics would motivate eBay sellers and vendors to remain on the platform even after the acquisition.

For Amazon, eBay's high-profit margins are a key selling point for the acquisition. This is primarily because eBay operates as a lightweight asset-light model; as a result, there is higher cash flow. Over the last four fiscal years, eBay's margins have been significantly higher than Amazon's. Therefore, the integration of eBay into Amazon will most likely boost the bottom line for the merged entity.

What Companies Have Amazon Acquired

Amazon, you may know, Amazon has not shied away from making acquisitions in the past. Since its inception, the company has made 98 acquisitions and investments in various companies, spending over $46 billion in the process. The following are some of the key acquisitions made by Amazon.

Whole Foods Market: Acquisition made in 2017 for $13.70 billion.
MGM Studios: Acquisition made in May 2021 for $8.45 billion.
One Medical Group: Acquisition made in July 2022 for $4 billion.
YES Network: Acquisition made in 2019 for 3.47 billion.
Twitch: Acquisition made in 2014 for $1 billion.

Other key brands owned by Amazon include Zappos, Audible, IMDB, and Pillpack. In light of projections for Amazon's future growth, the e-commerce giant would be well-positioned to acquire eBay if it so desired.

What Companies Has eBay Acquired?

eBay has also made acquisitions of its own. Some of the notable Amazon acquisitions include Skype Technologies and PayPal. eBay, however, chose to sell Skype to Microsoft in 2011. In 2015, PayPal was separated from eBay and became its own corporation. That notwithstanding, Amazon still has several companies under its name. Auction Co., GittiGidiyor, G-Market, Auction Co., Half.com, iBazar, and Qoo10.jp are just a few examples of such companies.

Bottom Line

Amazon and eBay are independent companies without any relation. Even though Amazon has a reputation for buying competitor companies, there is no official report of any interest by Amazon in acquiring eBay. However, if Amazon so desired, it certainly has the financial wherewithal to acquire eBay. So will Amazon be buying eBay any time soon? Not really, eBay does not pose much threat to Amazon, and therefore it is highly unlikely that the acquisition will be made.