EBay reported that second-quarter profit surged 50%, easily beating Wall Street expectations thanks to strong sales on online auctions, the automobile classified section and e-commerce sites such as shopping.com, an Associated Press report said. But analysts remained concerned about the declining number of items for sale on the site, the Associated Press report said. Revenue for the period ended June 30 was $1.83 billion, up 30% from $1.41 billion in the year-ago quarter. Not including $79.6 million in stock-based compensation expenses and other one-time charges, eBay earned $471.1 million up 34% from a year ago, the report said. On that basis, which does not comply with generally accepted accounting principles, analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected eBay to earn $447.18 million on revenue of $1.78 billion, it added. Revenue from the electronic payment service PayPal was $432.3 million, up 31% from a year ago. The Skype division, which allows customers to place long-distance calls over their computers, reported revenue of $89.13 million, up 102 % from a year ago. It's the second consecutive quarter of profitability for Skype, which eBay purchased in October 2005 for about $2.1 billion. Executives raised their forecast for the rest of the year, the report said. |
