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Where Are They Now - Monday, October 17, 2005

eBay Founder Jeff Skoll Goes To Hollywood

Even though he has $4B of his own, eBay original Jeff Skoll has not been in the news the way that his co-founder Pierre Omidyar has been with his varied investments. But now Skoll has emerged with a slate of 3 big-time Hollywood films that he has produced through his company Participant Productions. They include:

- Good Night, and Good Luck is about broadcaster Edward R. Murrow's battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy
- North Country stars Charlize Theron as a Minnesota miner confronting sexual harassment in the workplace
- Syriana in which George Clooney and Matt Damon play operatives in the global oil trade.

Skoll's take on Hollywood must infuriate industry moguls. He is astonished at how small Hollywood is - just $100B in revenue per year - given that how big an impact it has globally. So he's looking at Hollywood as a philanthropic endeavor: "We've actually had cases where we looked at the risk profile of a film and said, `The way this looks, chances are we're going to lose a million, $2M, even $5M. But maybe we'll get $10M or $20M worth of social value from it."

Read - EBay founder looks to direct reel change (SJ Mercury)