"All in all, we're a strong company operating in a challenging global environment," eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said during a conference call with analysts.
EBay saw revenues decline 16% in the fourth quarter of 2008, which amounted to $1.3 billion. It was the first quarterly revenue drop for the web retailer with explosive historic growth.EBay also announced it expects net revenues in the range of $1.8 to $2.05 billion in the first quarter of 2009. This was below analyst estimates, which were $2.08 billion for the quarter, and sent the stock down 10% after the report.
Seems investors and shoppers are feeling just a bit more optimistic as the holiday season begins. Black Friday wasn't the disaster many predicted; and Cyber Monday actually beat expectations, as lots of shoppers went online to buy their presents. This was good news for EBay, which desparately needs to beat its own predictions of its first-ever quarterly revenue decline in Q4.
At a P/E of 11, and with important assets to supplement its auction business in Paypal and Skype, its time to buy EBay for the long term.
EBAY reported 3rd quarter earnings after market close on October 15th, and while Q3 was OK they issued guidance for Q4 well below analyst stimates. The company reported $2.1 billion in revenue in Q3, in line with forecasts, but also predicted revenues in the $2.02 - $2.17 billion range, well below Wall Street expectations of $2.4 billion.
On July 17, 2008 eBay released it's second quarter earnings results. The company posted a 22% increase in profits over the same period a year before. Revenues for the quarter were $2.2 billion, an increase of 20% over the second quarter of 2007. eBay stock dropped nearly 14% however, due to a weak outlook for the company. The value of goods sold on eBay dropped significantly, mostly due to sharp declines in auto prices.
On July 14th 2008 eBay won a lawsuit, originally filed in November of 2007, against jewelery giant Tiffany's. The lawsuit was one of many against eBay from luxury good makers, who claim eBay isn't doing enough to protect against the sale of counterfeit goods.
On June 30th 2008 a French court ruled that Ebay must pay Louis Vuitton $63.1 million in damages for facilitating the sale of fake goods on the online auction site.
On April 16, 2008 Ebay released its first quarter earnings results. The company reported a 22% increase in net income and a 24% gain in total revenues. The company has been increasing its focus on international sales. In the first quarter of 2008 this focus helped the company's earnings with 55% of total sales coming from its international business.
Meg Whitman, the chief executive of auction website eBay has resigned after a decade at the helm of the firm. She will step down on 31 March and is set to be replaced by John Donahoe, who is currently in charge of the firm's main auction business, eBay said.
The company swung to a loss due to a large write-off of its investment into Internet telephony carrier Skype, but the results excluding the charge came in well above analysts expectations for the period.
EBAY broke out of a 9 month sideways consolidation pattern.
eBay acquires Stumbleupon for $75 million.
eBay announces plans for a mobile PayPal service.
eBay issues Q1 2007 guidance in line with analyst's estimates, and Fiscal 2007 earnings guidance above estimates.
StubHub controls a large chunk of the secondary ticket market with ticket sales of 400 million in 2006.
