Skype-stake sale helps increase eBay revenue

Investors sent eBay's stock higher in after-hours trading. Though the company gave a first-quarter outlook that was shy of analysts' estimates, its guidance for the full year was stronger than expected, suggesting stronger momentum later in 2012.

In a conference call with analysts, CEO John Donahoe called 2011 an “inflection point for shopping.”

“For consumers and retailers we intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible,” he said. “This means enabling retailers of all sizes to reach consumers when, where and how those consumers want to shop.”

EBay's long-term plan is to transform into a commerce company that melds the online and offline shopping worlds. As part of this effort, it has been expanding PayPal's reach beyond the Web, to mobile devices and tablets. The company is also testing a service that will let people use their PayPal accounts to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, though the program is still in the early stages.

The company earned US$1.98 billion, or US$1.51 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up from US$559 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding special items such as the Skype gain, eBay Inc. says it earned 60 cents per share in the latest quarter, above the 57 cents that analysts were expecting.

Revenue grew 35 percent to US$3.38 billion from US$2.5 billion.

On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of US$3.32 billion.

The e-commerce and online payments company said its PayPal business continued to grow, ending the quarter with more than 106 million active accounts. That's up 13 percent from a year earlier. Revenue jumped 28 percent to US$1.24 billion and the business processed US$33.4 billion worth of payments during the quarter. That's up 24 percent from a year earlier.

As more people used their smartphones and tablets to buy things online, payments made through mobile devices accounted for US$4 billion of the total payments processed through PayPal — a more than fivefold increase from the prior year.

The company's marketplaces business, which includes eBay.com and other e-commerce sites and businesses, saw its revenue grow 16 percent to US$1.77 billion.

EBay's outlook for the current quarter fell shy of expectations. The company expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of 50 cents to 51 cents per share on revenue of US$3.05 billion to US$3.15 billion. Analysts are predicting earnings of 54 cents per share on revenue of US$3.16 billion.

For all of 2012, the company is forecasting adjusted earnings of US$2.25 to US$2.30 per share on revenue of US$13.7 to US$14 billion. Analysts are expecting US$2 per share in earnings and US$11.59 billion in revenue.

The San Jose, California-based company's stock climbed 60 cents, or 2 percent, to US$30.94 in after-hours trading after closing down 19 cents at US$30.34.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email