Pierre Omidyar net worth
What is Pierre Omidyar’s Net Worth?
Pierre Omidyar is a well-known Iranian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist with a net worth of $24 billion. Pierre Omidyar made his fortune as the founder of eBay. He became a billionaire the day he went public in September 1998. He is the richest man in Hawaii.
He was 28 when he wrote the computer code that would eventually become eBay. At the time, the program was called “Auction Web” and was hosted on a website he created to get information on the Ebola virus. eBay’s oft-repeated story that it started to get Omidyar’s wife to trade a Pez water cooler is actually a clever myth created by eBay’s PR department.
Omidyar is also a well-known philanthropist, having started an organization called the Omidyar Network, which donates billions of dollars to charities. His foundation is described as “a philanthropic investment firm committed to harnessing market forces to create opportunities for people to improve their lives”.
early life
Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967 in Paris, France as Pavez Morad Omidyar. His parents immigrated to France from Iran to study. His father, Cyrus Omidyar, completed his medical studies in France and became a surgeon, while his mother, Elahé Mir-Djalali, studied linguistics and became a scholar.
When Omidyar was a child, his family moved to the United States for his father’s work. He attended Potomac School, where he first became interested in computers, and then attended St. Andrew’s Anglican School in Potomac, Maryland. After graduating from high school in 1984, he attended Tufts University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1988. He then continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Profession
Omidyar’s first computer science-related job was with Clairs, a subsidiary of Apple Computers. He then co-founded Ink Development, a pen-based computing startup that later became an e-commerce company, renamed eShop Inc. Microsoft bought eShop in 1996 for about $50 million, of which Omidyar made $1 million.
Omidyar started writing code for a new online business in 1995, just before Microsoft bought eShop. He envisioned a platform that would allow direct person-to-person collectible sales through auctions. In September 1995, he launched the first version of the service and named it Auction Web.
Over time, the business started to grow as more and more people started buying from each other. Omidyar takes a small fee from each transaction, allowing him to continue expanding the site. By mid-1997, the site was hosting nearly 800,000 auctions a day, and Omidyar decided to change the name from auction site to eBay.
(Photo by Brian Harkin/Getty Images)
The company continued to grow throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. In 1998, eBay went public and Omidyar became a billionaire. In 2002, eBay acquired online payments company PayPal. Omidyar has been active at eBay for the past few decades and retains his title of director emeritus, although he officially steps down from the board in 2020.
Outside of eBay, he is an investor in many different projects, companies and properties, including Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach, California. He is also a member of the 21st Century Committee of the Berggruen Institute.
personal life
Omidyar is married to his wife, Pamela, and the couple own properties in Nevada and Hawaii. He is Buddhist. He is also a supporter of the Democratic Party and a major donor to Democratic candidates and organizations.
Philanthropy
Omidyar was also a philanthropist and pledged to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime. In 2019, he donated about $500 million to various charities. In 2004, he also founded his own philanthropic investment company, Omidyar Network. The organization invests in a variety of ideas and start-ups focused on creating economic, social and political change and helping them scale. He has spent nearly $1 billion on organizations as diverse as property rights, governance and civic engagement, financial inclusion, and consumer and internet mobility. He also founded the global philanthropic organization Luminate Group in 2018. The organization focuses on building fair and just societies and supports nearly 350 organizations working locally and at the grassroots level in 17 different countries.
