Ebay triples earnings, grows user base by half
A Wall Street Journal story on eBay's spectacular earnings' announcement at the close of the market today: Ebay more than tripled its net third-quarter net income and grew its user base by almost 50%. Great business model!
EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., said it earned $61 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with $18.8 million, or seven cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 49% to $288.8 million from $194.4 million.
Excluding certain items, eBay said earnings were $62.7 million, or 22 cents a share. The results exceeded eBay's projected earnings of 19 cents a share on revenue of $278 million to $281 million. Analysts had expected earnings of 20 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call.
"EBay continues to deliver terrific performance quarter after quarter," said Meg Whitman, the company's president and chief executive. "Our success results from our thriving community of users -- buyers looking for practically everything and sellers using eBay to build their businesses."
The company said its listings grew 47% to 160 million during the quarter, while the number of registered users surged 46% to 54.9 million users. In another sign of growth, revenue from international transactions more than doubled to $75.3 million.