I require a few paragraphs on the origins, growth and global reach of ebay.

No rush ... Get Easter out of the way, if you wish.

And, if the price is not attractive, please scream.

Thanks for another interesting question! I've prepared brief
descriptions of eBay's origins, growth, and global reach, with links
to online references.

=================================================
              The Origins of eBay
=================================================

The "birth" of eBay occurred in September, 1995, in the home of Pierre
Omidyar in San Jose, California. The fledgling Web site was envisioned
as a worldwide online marketplace for the sale of goods and services.

In 1998, Omidyar and eBay's cofounder, Jeff Skoll, brought Margaret C.
("Meg") Whitman onboard. Whitman chose her senior staff from companies
such as Pepsico and Disney, created an experienced management team,
and helped to build a strong vision for the company -- that eBay is a
company whose mission is to connect people, not to sell things to
them.

"We started with commerce, and what grew out of that was community. So
we think of ourselves as sort of a community-commerce model. And what
we've basically done is put in place a venue where people can be
successful dealing and communicating with one another."
... Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, Inc. 

=================================================
              The Growth of eBay
=================================================

Meg Whitman has succinctly summed up the evolution of eBay in this
alliterative phrase: "Beanie Babies to Beamers." In eBay's formative
years, the site was filled with collectibles, toys, and memorabilia.
Now eBay features 19,000 categories, including automobiles ranging
from Buicks to BMWs. The customer service center of eBay, located in
Salt Lake City, employs 700 people.

During the fourth quarter of 2002, eBay users transacted $4.6 billion
in gross merchandise sales (the total value of items sold). By
comparison, gross merchandise sales of $2.74 billion were reported in
the fourth quarter of 2001. According to Media Metrix, eBay is the
most popular shopping site on the Internet, when measured by total
user minutes.

In June 2000, eBay acquired Half.com for $241 million (in stock). 
Half.com is a site that specializes in online sales of used CDs,
videos and books. In October 2002, eBay bought PayPal, Inc. for $1.5
billion. PayPal, which offers the most popular means of payment on
eBay, provides clearing services for the execution of online
transactions.

"When we took the company public in September of 1998, it was largely
a collectibles Web site based here in the United States in an auction
format. We've really migrated the platform to a whole other level of
dimension."
... Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, Inc. 

=================================================
             The Global Reach of eBay
=================================================

The site now has around 50 million registered users worldwide, with
over 1.5 billion page-views per month. Currently eBay is operating in
eight of the top ten countries (by online market size) outside of the
United States. eBay is gaining users 50% faster in Europe than in the
United States, and gross merchandise sales are growing 135% faster.
However, in February 2002, CEO Whitman pulled the plug on eBay Japan,
which was a distant second to Yahoo! in the online-auction business.

In 2000, eBay was presented the Global Reach Award by the MIT Sloan
School of Management. eBay was praised for having extended its reach
around the globe, bringing together buyers and sellers from Austria to
Zimbabwe.

"There are two things I focus on. One is maintaining the small-town
feel on a global scale - growing big and at the same time staying
small... Secondarily is simply growing management and infrastructure
to be a global company that does three or four times as much volume as
we do today."
... Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, Inc. 

=================================================
=================================================

References:

The Industry Standard: A Brief History of eBay 
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28323,00.html

The Industry Standard: What Makes eBay Unstoppable
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28310,00.html?body_page=2

The Industry Standard: Meg Whitman Speaks
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28309,00.html

Homepage of Magnús Eðvald Björnsson: eBay, a Concise Analysis 
http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~magnus/ief248a/eBay/index.html

BusinessWeek Online: Q&A with eBay's Meg Whitman
http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_22/b3631008.htm?scriptFramed?scriptFramed

BusinessWeek Online: Meg Whitman's Bid for Growth
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2002/tc2002101_8728.htm

The Salt Lake Tribune: CEO Recounts Evolution of eBay
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/may/05302002/business/741121.htm

The Street: Full Speed Ahead on the eBay Earnings Machine
http://www.thestreet.com/comment/detox/1263993.html

Auction Minders, LLC: Are you "doing it eBay"?
http://www.auction-minders.com/why_ebay.htm

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "history of ebay"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22history+of+ebay

For more info on eBay, you may want to read "The Perfect Store: Inside
eBay," by Adam Cohen:

Amazon.com: "The Perfect Store"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316150487/ref=ase_auctionbytescom/103-2081345-7033445

I appreciate your choosing me to answer this challenging question. I
assumed that the assignment to write "a few paragraphs" necessitated
brevity, but please request clarification if anything I've said needs
refocusing, if you'd like me to expand on any part of the subject
matter, or if any of the links do not function. I'll be glad to offer
further assistance, as needed.

Best,
Pink

Hi, Pinky

That's absolutely perfect.

Many thanks!