Freeman I have enjoyed your posts through the years and fully understood the meaning of your words no matter how convoluted they seemed. However, this reference to me leaves me perplexed. What is the meaning behind my name? Are you implying I caused ebay to drop because I did not spend enough on posters this past year? Claude In a message dated 1/21/2009 11:40:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, flixs...@aol.com writes:
How do they know the 31% decline is due to just the Economy? I think some part has to be Claude Litton :) But seriously couldn't you say 18% of that decline is due to stupid corporate decisions regarding policy sending sellers and buyers elsewhere? That there pursuit of an Amazon.com e-trade sensibility was wrongheaded? However the results show though that Paypal was a prime acquisition. freeman January 22, 2009 EBay’s Income Declines 31% As Economy Reduces Traffic By LAURIE J. FLYNN SAN FRANCISCO — The turbulent economy battered _eBay_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/ebay_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , and the online marketplace reported its profit fell 31 percent and that it had its first revenue decline since it started in 1995. The results cap a year in which eBay made considerable efforts to reduce its dependence on its auction business, where growth has slowed in favor of fixed-price sales and eBay’s noncore businesses, like its PayPal payment-processing unit. “This was eBay’s first year-over-year quarterly decline, and we’re not happy about that," said John J. Donahoe, eBay’s president and chief executive in a conference call with analysts. “There’s no doubt eBay was impacted by the macroeconomy, and our fourth-quarter results reflect this.” The report caused shares of eBay to decline more than 6 percent in after-hours trading, after closing up 73 cents a share, or nearly 6 percent, at $13.28 in regular trading before the report was released. Adding to the disappointment, eBay warned that its first-quarter income would also fall short of Wall Street’s expectations. For the fiscal 2009 first quarter, eBay expects income, excluding items, of 32 to 34 cents a share on revenue of $1.8 billion to $2.05 billion. Analysts had forecast income of 40 cents on revenue of $2.10 billion. EBay’s net income in the fourth quarter fell to $367 million, or 29 cents a share, from $530.9 million or 39 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. EBay’s full-year revenue of $8.54 billion was up 11 percent over 2007. Excluding one-time items, eBay earned 41 cents a share, beating analysts’ forecast of 39 cents a share, but it fell slightly short of analysts’ revenue forecast of $2.12 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson First Call. The company, based in San Jose, Calif., said revenue fell 7 percent, to $2.04 billion, its first drop in sales in 10 years. EBay’s Marketplaces unit, which includes the core eBay auction site, reported a 16 percent decline in revenue, which the company attributed to falling demand and the strengthening dollar. Gross merchandise volume, the total of all transactions on the eBay Marketplace and an important measure of overall growth at eBay, decreased 12 percent during the quarter, its second consecutive quarter of decline. Revenue at PayPal rose 11 percent as total payments volume increased 14 percent, while Skype revenue increased 26 percent. For the first time, the majority of PayPal’s volume came from sites not affiliated with eBay, company executives said. Scott Devitt, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said the results were hardly surprising given slowing demand, though the first-quarter outlook was even weaker than he expected. “Fundamentally, the business continues to be challenged,” he said. Even as the most-visited retail site on the Web with about 85 million visitors, eBay’s traffic in December was about 4 percent lower than the year before. Overall holiday spending online was down about 3 percent from last year, according to the market researcher Obscure. The disappointing results come at the end of Mr. Donahoe’s first year as chief executive. But Mr. Donahoe said he was pleased with the number of fundamental “structural” changes the company made in 2008, focusing on, among other things, the security of the site and a reduction in the fees it charges fixed-price sellers. “Today, eBay is safer and easier to use than it was a year ago,” he said. The company laid off 10 percent of its work force of 16,000 during the fourth quarter, and paid $1.35 billion to acquire the online-payment firm Bill Me Later and two Danish advertising companies. ____________________________________ >From Wall Street to Main Street and everywhere in between, stay up-to-date with the _latest news_ (http://aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000023) . 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