Pierre Morad Omidyar was born on Parviz Morad Omidyar, June 21,1967 and is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire.
30 Facts About Pierre Omidyar
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Pierre Omidyar was born in Paris, the son of Iranian parents who had immigrated to France for higher education.
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Pierre Omidyar's mother, Elahe Mir-Djalali Omidyar, who earned her doctorate in linguistics at the Sorbonne, is an academic.
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The family immigrated to the United States when Pierre Omidyar was a child; his father worked as a urologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Pierre Omidyar's interest in computers began while he was a ninth-grade student at The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia.
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Pierre Omidyar graduated in 1984 from St Andrew's Episcopal School, Potomac, Maryland.
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Shortly after studying at Berkeley, Pierre Omidyar started working for Claris, an Apple Computer subsidiary.
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Pierre Omidyar worked with the team that upgraded MacDraw to MacDraw II.
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Microsoft acquired eShop on June 11,1996, for less than $50 million, and Pierre Omidyar earned $1 million from the deal.
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In 1995, at 28, Pierre Omidyar began to write the original computer code for an online venue to enable the listing of a direct person-to-person auction for collectible items.
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Pierre Omidyar created a simple prototype on his web page.
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Pierre Omidyar's website had a section devoted to the Ebola virus, among other topics.
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Pierre Omidyar was astonished that anyone would pay for a broken device, but the buyer assured him that he was deliberately collecting broken laser pointers.
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Pierre Omidyar incorporated the enterprise; his small fee on each sale financed the site's expansion.
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The revenue soon outstripped his salary at General Magic and nine months later, Pierre Omidyar decided to dedicate his full attention to his new enterprise.
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In 1997, Pierre Omidyar changed the company's name from AuctionWeb to eBay and began advertising the service aggressively.
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Pierre Omidyar originally wanted Echo Bay, the name of a recreational area near Lake Mead, Nevada, because it "sounded cool".
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Pierre Omidyar ran the company until January 2008, when she announced her retirement.
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Pierre Omidyar is an investor in Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach, California.
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Pierre Omidyar is a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council.
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In 2020, Pierre Omidyar stepped down from the board of eBay as part of a broader overhaul of the company.
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Pierre Omidyar has stayed active in the company, retaining the title of director emeritus.
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In 2010, Pierre Omidyar launched an online investigative reporting news service, Honolulu Civil Beat, covering civic affairs in Hawaii.
24.
In 2013, prompted by the Edward Snowden leaks, Pierre Omidyar announced the creation of the journalism venture First Look Media, which on February 10,2014, launched The Intercept, drawing from journalists such as Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill, Dan Froomkin, John Temple, and Jay Rosen.
25.
Pierre Omidyar has been part of the executive producer team for the following films.
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Pierre Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunities for people to improve their lives.
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In 2018 Pierre Omidyar established the global philanthropic organization Luminate Group.
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Pierre Omidyar is a major donor to Democratic Party candidates and organizations.
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Pierre Omidyar has bankrolled groups like the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute and the digital rights group Public Knowledge Project, in the fight against the big tech companies, which he criticizes as overly powerful and destructive to democracy.
30.
Pierre Omidyar has given funding to the Center for Humane Technology, whose head of public affairs is Haugen's top PR representative in the US.