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eBay Enterprise - Wikipedia

eBay Enterprise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

eBay Enterprise, Inc. (formerly GSI Commerce, Inc.) was a

multinational e-commerce corporation that specialized in
creating, developing and running online shopping sites for brick
and mortar brands and retailers. The company also provided a
variety of marketing, consumer engagement, customer care,
payment processing, fulllment, fraud detection, and technology
integration services.
eBay Enterprise had over 500 clients and operated 26 ofces in
North America, Europe, and Asia. It provided services for
companies such as Zales, iRobot, Timberland, Ace Hardware,
Sports Authority, Dick's Sporting Goods, and RadioShack.[1]

eBay Enterprise, Inc.

Formerly
called

Global Sports Incorporated

GSI Commerce, Inc.
e-Commerce
Marketing services

Industry
Fate

Dissolved
Pepperjam
Radial Inc.

Successors

Contents
1 History
1.1 Founding and growth
1.2 eBay ownership
1.3 Sale and dissolution
2 List of acquisitions
3 List of divestitures
4 References

Founded

1995

Founder

Michael G. Rubin

Defunct

2016

Headquarters King of Prussia, Pennsylvania,

United States
Website

http://gsicommerce.com,%20http:
//www.ebayenterprise.com/ (http://
gsicommerce.com,%20http://www.
ebayenterprise.com/)

History
Founding and growth
Originally founded by Michael G. Rubin in 1995 as Global Sports Incorporated, the company focused on selling
sporting goods and supplies.[2] In 1999 it branched out into clothing and a variety of other categories and changed
its name to GSI Commerce in 2002.[3] Toys "R" Us, one of GSI's largest e-commerce partners, chose GSI after
suing Amazon.com for breach of its exclusivity contract.[4] In October 2000, GSI acquired FogDog.com, an online
sporting goods store.[5] In August 2007, GSI acquired Accretive Commerce, a company with a similar business
model, for $97.5 million.[6] In 2008 it was announced that Innotrac, a similar e-commerce company with
fulllment centers located throughout the United States, would be acquired, however, the deal was canceled in
January 2009.[7] The company acquired e-Dialog in 2008;[8] as well as Retail Convergence, operators of Rue La La
and Smartbargains.com, in 2009.[9]
In September 2008, GSI and Timberland reached a settlement of up to $7,000,000 with a class of cell phone
subscribers who alleged that they received unsolicited SMS text messages advertising for Timberland.[10] Both
Timberland and GSI denied any wrongful conduct and stated that a completely separate and independent company

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was responsible for securing the consents of the class members to receive the text messages.[11] The settlement was
signicant as it was the rst nationwide settlement for unsolicited text messages under the Telephone Consumer
Protection Act.[12]
On March 21, 2010, the company and its former CEO, Michael Rubin, were featured on the CBS television series
Undercover Boss.[13]

eBay ownership
On March 28, 2011, it was announced that eBay Inc. would acquire GSI for $2.4 billion. The deal was closed on
June 20, 2011.[14]
On June 20, 2013, the company announced that it would be retiring the GSI Commerce name in favor of eBay
Enterprise.[15]
Magento, Inc. became a part of eBay Enterprise on November 21, 2013.[16] eBay Inc. had purchased Magento on
June 6, 2011, prior to completing the acquisition of GSI Commerce.[17]

Sale and dissolution

On July 16, 2015, the Permira-led consortium of buyers including Sterling Partners, Longview Asset Management,
Innotrac, Inc. and companies owned by Permira funds began the process to buy the company.[18]
On November 2, 2015, the sale was nalized for $925 million and eBay Enterprise became an independent
company.[19] The company was split into 4 parts: enterprise operations and technology services, Magento
Commerce Technologies, Marketing Solutions, and customer relationship management (CRM).[20] The CRM
business was acquired by Zeta Interactive.[21]
The photography, video and copywriting services division of eBay Enterprise was sold to Industrial Color Brands
on March 28, 2016 for an undisclosed amount.[22]
eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions rebranded as Pepperjam on April 7, 2016.[23]
On April 19, 2016, the enterprise services division of eBay Enterprise merged with Innotrac, and ofcially became
Radial, Inc..[24]

List of acquisitions
FogDog (2000)[5]
Accretive Commerce (2007)[6]
e-Dialog (2008)[8]
Silverlign (2009)[25]
Pepperjam Network (2009)[26]
Retail Convergence (2009)[9]
FetchBack (2010)[27]
ClearSaleing (2011)[28]
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Fanatics (2011)[29]

List of divestitures
Fanatics (2012)[30]
Retail Convergence (2012)[30]

References
1. Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel (2011-02-14). "Meet GSI
Commerce, The Biggest E-Commerce Empire You've
Never Heard Of". Business Insider. Retrieved
2016-05-11.
2. Huang, Patricia (July 6, 2006). "America's Youngest
CEOs". Forbes. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
3. "Our History". GSI Commerce. 2009. Retrieved
2010-03-14.
4. Regan, Keith (March 3, 2006). "Toys 'R' Us Wins Right
to End Amazon Partnership". E-commerce Times.
Retrieved 2010-03-14.
5. Sandoval, Greg (October 24, 2000). "Web site
developer buys sports site Fogdog". CNET. Retrieved
2015-07-26.
6. Tedeschi, Bob (August 27, 2007). "Late to Web
Retailing? There's Still Money There". The New York
Times. New York. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
7. "Innotrac merger with GSI Commerce canceled".
Philadelphia Business Journal. January 29, 2009.
Retrieved 2010-03-14.
8. Katz, Julie M. (January 24, 2008). "Independent ESP eDialog Makes Out Well In Acquisition Deal". Forrester
Research. Retrieved 2015-07-26.
9. Stone, Brad (October 27, 2009). "Operator of 'Private'
Web Sales Is Acquired". The New York Times. New
York. Retrieved 2015-07-26.
10. Weinstein v. Airit2me, Inc. et al., No. 06-C-0484 (N.D.
Ill. 2008)
11. "GSI Commerce, Timberland in tentative settlement in
text message case". Philadelphia Business Journal.
September 15, 2008. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
12. "Timberland laces up $7M text spam settlement". Mass
High Tech. September 23, 2008. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
13. " "Undercover Boss" GSI Commerce (TV Episode
2010)". IMDb. Retrieved 2016-07-03.
14. Rao, Leena (June 20, 2011). "eBay Closes $2.4 Billion
Acquisition of GSI Commerce". TechCrunch. Retrieved
2015-07-25.
15. Protalinski, Emil (June 20, 2013). "Two years after the
acquisition, eBay rebrands GSI Commerce as eBay
Enterprise". The Next Web. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
16. "Expanding Opportunities for Magento Merchants,
Partners and Developers". Magento. November 21,
2013. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
17. Perez, Juan Carlos (June 6, 2011). "EBay Buys
Magento to Boost Its E-commerce Developer Tools".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_Enterprise

18.

19.

20.
21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

Magento to Boost Its E-commerce Developer Tools".

PC World. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
Krishna Kumar, Devika; Goliya, Kshitiz (July 16,
2015). "EBay sells enterprise unit ahead of PayPal
split". Reuters. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
"EBay Finalizes Sale Of Enterprise Unit As Magento
Relaunches As An Independent Company". Forbes.
Retrieved 2015-11-02.
"Permira nabs chunk of Ebay Enterprise in $925m
buyout". AltAssets. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
DiStefano, Joseph N. (2015-11-04). "eBay's ex-GSI
Commerce split 4 ways". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Retrieved 2016-04-22.
Enright, Allison (2016-03-28). "eBay Enterprise sells
its photo and video production studio division". Internet
Retailer. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
Allabaugh, Denise (2016-04-07). "Pepperjam name
revived". The Scranton Times-Tribune. Retrieved
2016-04-22.
Guy, Sandra (2016-04-19). "An eBay Enterprise
division rebrands and directs some big retailer clients to
Demandware". Internet Retailer. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
Evans, Katie (April 7, 2009). "GSI acquires web design
and marketing agency Silverlign". Internet Retailer.
Retrieved 2015-07-29.
Allabaugh, Denise (December 27, 2009). "Job losses,
takeovers and growth mark 2009 in Luzerne County".
The Times-Tribune. Scranton. Retrieved 2015-07-26.
Schonfeld, Erick (June 1, 2010). "FetchBack Fetches
$40 Million From GSI Commerce". TechCrunch.
Retrieved 2015-07-26.
Martinez, Juan (January 10, 2011). "GSI Commerce
acquires ClearSaleing". Direct Marketing News.
Retrieved 2015-07-26.
Bauerlein, David (February 12, 2011). "Jacksonvillebased Football Fanatics scores with $277 million sale".
Florida Times-Union. Jacksonville. Retrieved
2015-07-26.
Carlson, Nicholas (August 1, 2012). "Instead Of
Retiring After Selling His Company For $2 Billion,
This Guy Went Ahead And Created A New ~$2 Billion
Business". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-07-29.

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Categories: Commerce websites EBay Online retailers of the United States
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