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He graduated from St Andrew's in 1984 and from Tufts University in 1988 with a degree in computer science. While working for Claris, an Apple Computer subsidiary, he co-founded Ink Development, that later developed into an e-commerce company called eShop.

After his fiancé, Pamela Wesley shared with him that she had an old hobby collecting and trading Pez candy dispensers but that there was no facility for trading them in the Bay area, he took up the challenge. Over a long holiday weekend he wrote the original computer code for an auction site. The site was launched on September 4, 1995 as Auction Web. He later re-named it eBay after Echo Bay his consulting firm, when echobay.com was unavailable.

As of July 2008, after taking the company public, Omidyar's 178 million eBay shares were worth around $4.45 billion. Pierre and his now wife Pamela, have become major philanthropists and he states on his blog at pierre.typepad.com that his foundation has created a new organization, the Omidyar Network, to fund for-profit as well as non-profit organizations. He explains that to understand why they did this you have to understand how he himself looks at eBay. Pierre says that "when he talks about eBay he likes to emphasize the way eBay has helped people pursue their individual passions and discover their own power to make good things happen; how they've become empowered by participating in an open and honest marketplace, in a level playing field, meeting and working/trading with people who share their interests."

Pierre believes in the self-empowerment of working from the bottom-up and starting a home based eBay business is one of the fastest and easiest ways to do it for most people especially stay at home moms. But if you live in a remote area a satellite internet connection can be your only alternative. As anyone who has had the experience with any online auction can tell you, speed is most important and with a satellite internet connection living in a rural area will not be a deterrent. You would be extremely frustrated and most often not able to purchase anything on eBay or run your own auction if you did not have a high-speed connection. There is one seller, in a remote area, who has made a deal with his wife that if he quits smoking she will agree to purchase satellite internet to replace his dial-up, which will in turn increase his business and decrease his frustration level and need to smoke!