eBay springs a £232m surprise
Online auctioneer eBay has surprised Wall Street with a 22% increase in second-quarter profits through strong growth of its PayPal payments system.
However, it signalled that the economic gloom is closing in, and its outlook for the current quarter is below analysts' expectations.
Net profit for the quarter was $460 million (£232.5 million) on revenues up 20% to $2.2 billion.
Listings on eBay's website climbed by 19% to 667 million during the quarter although the number of active users increased only 1.4% to 84.5 million. EBay also reported a better performance by free internet phone service Skype, a long-term headache for the company which admits that it overpaid for the business.
The auctioneer also scored a major legal victory this week when a New York judge ruled that jeweller Tiffany & Co could not force eBay to police its site for counterfeit Tiffany jewellery.
It is still challenging a recent ruling in France that ordered it to pay $61 million to LVMH over sales of fake handbags and perfume on its website.
