eBay posts 50% rise in Q2 profit

eBay posts 50% rise in Q2 profit
NEW YORK: Online auctioneer eBay Inc said Wednesday its profit for the second quarter rose 50 per cent following substantial growth in auction and online payments business. For the quarter ended 30 June, the company had earnings of $375.8 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $250 million, or 17 cents a share, of the corresponding previous year quarter.

eBay said excluding items like stock options its earnings stood at $471 million, or 34 cents a share.

Revenue rose 30 per cent to $1.83 billion, compared with $1.4 billion for the same period last year. Analysts had predicted profit of 32 cents a share and revenue of $1.78 billion.

The company maintained its 2007 and said for the full year it expected revenue of $7.30 billion to $7.45 billion.

For the third quarter, it expected net earnings per share in the range from 25 cents to 27 cents. Excluding one-time items, it forecast a profit of 31 cents to 33 cents per share. Revenue will be in the range from $1.78 billion to $1.83 billion.

eBay said a large chunk of growth came from the payments business. Revenue from PayPal grew 34 per cent to $354 million. Total payment volume at the unit rose 32 per cent to $11.7 billion globally. Its internet telephony business Skype too brought good business with revenue growing more than 100 per cent compared with $90 million of the previous year period. The unit's revenue, however, accounted for 5 per cent of the company's total revenue. Skype had some 220 million registered users at the end of June, up from 196 million at the end of March.

The company, however, had slower growth in its marketplace business. The gross merchandise volume rose 12 per cent to $14.46 billion during the growth. Its auction and fixed price marketplaces business revenue rose 26 percent to $1.29 billion.

Chief executive Meg Whitman said the company had a good quarter with good results across all the businesses. She was very optimistic about performance for the rest of the year.

Whitman said the company will try to revive the falling auctions business in the U.S. and Germany.