eBay Auction Profits Surge on More Buying and Selling
eBay announced first-quarter earnings yesterday of $256.3 million, or 19 cents per share. The online auction giant’s earnings were up from $200.1 million, or 15 cents per share in the same period of 2004. eBay attributes its surge in income to more buyers and sellers using its online auction system.
Meg Whitman, eBay’s president and chief executive, called the first quarter “wonderful.” More than 147 million people were registered to use the site at the end of March, up 40 percent from the end of 2004. “The eBay community is thriving, and we’re in an excellent position to deliver on both the top line and profit goals we’ve set out for 2005 and beyond,” Whitman said in a statement. Yahoo showed excellent revenues this quarter also and attributed a lot of those constant earnings to the amount of page views by registered and non-registered members.
Excluding special items, the 10-year-old online auction company earned $275.5 million, or 20 cents per share, up from $210.8 million, or 16 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2004. For the three months ended March 31, San Jose-based eBay reported first-quarter revenue of $1.03 billion, up 36 percent from $756.2 million in the year-ago period. EBay shares increased by 94 cents, or 2.9 percent, to close at $33.11 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the earnings were released.
