GoPro Inc President Tony Bates Joins eBay Inc Board

Updated on

GoPro President Tony Bates has joined eBay’s board as an independent director. The online marketplace announced Monday that it has appointed GoPro President Tony Bates and the American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern to its board. San Jose-based eBay is in the process of spinning off its payments service PayPal into an independent entity.

GoPro President supports the eBay-PayPal separation

eBay CEO John Donahoe said Bates and McGovern are accomplished leaders whose insights will help eBay launch two dynamic global companies. Bates joined GoPro as its President and board member in June 2014. McGovern has served as the EVP of AT&T’s consumer markets division and the President of Fidelity Personal Investments in the past.

Before joining GoPro, Bates served as the EVP of Microsoft’s Business Development and Evangelism group. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Skype between 2011 and 2013, which was acquired by Microsoft. It’s pretty interesting that before Tony Bates became Skype CEO, the service was owned by none other than eBay. Bates fully supports the separation of eBay’s marketplace business from its payments technology unit PayPal.

PayPal separation on track

eBay decided to spin off PayPal after intense pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn. The company said that Jonathan Christodoro has also been added to the board as part of its agreement with Carl Icahn. However, two current directors Richard Schlosberg and William Ford have decided not to stand for re-election to the board this year. eBay’s annual meeting will be held on May 1, 2015.

After its May 1 annual meeting, the online marketplace firm’s board will have 15 directors, including 13 independent ones. The company said it was on track to complete the separation of PayPal in the second half of this year. PayPal filed its Form 10 with the SEC last month to begin the securities registration process.

eBay shares rose 1.31% to $58.69 in early trading after the announcement. GoPro stock jumped 1.66% to $41.07 at 10:44 AM EDT on Monday.

Leave a Comment