Oliver Samwer holds a business degree from WHU, one of Germany's top business schools. During his studies, Oliver was a fellow of Deutsche Studienstiftung which awards scholarships to Germany's top 1% of students. While at university, Oliver was also a co-author of a publication of the success factors of over 50 start-ups in Silicon Valley.

In January 1999, he and his two brothers founded Alando.de which became the market leader of Internet auctions in Germany. After the successful sale of Alando.de to eBay Inc., Oliver was Managing Director of eBay, responsible for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Together with his brothers, he turned eBay Germany into the most profitable international site of eBay worldwide.

In 2000, Oliver and his brothers founded Jamba! AG which became the market leader for wireless content such as music, pictures, games and videos for mobile phones in Europe and the US. In 2004 Verisign Inc. acquired Jamba! AG. In 2006 News Corp. acquired 51% of Jamba.

In 2004 Oliver was selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.