EBay net in line, reaffirms outlook; shrs up 6 pct
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Web auction leader eBay Inc.   on Wednesday reported a 14 percent drop in  second-quarter profit that met expectations, but its stock rose  6 percent as it announced its first-ever share buyback.
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(InfoWorld) - The 2006 holiday shopping period got off to a strong start over the weekend, according to several e-commerce operators. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is typically seen as the start of the holiday sales season in the U.S. and retail outlets across the nation see some of the largest crowds of the year on that day. In recent years, online retailers also report strong traffic on the day. While consumers may be opening their wallets to online retailers like never before, there's also evidence they are after bargains like never before. Two online price comparison sites, which point consumers to the lowest prices for various items, reported surging traffic. Pricegrabber.com said it's seen a 45 percent increase year-over-year in referrals to merchants for November to date. In some categories, including toys, sporting goods and apparel, the amount of traffic sent to retailers by Pricegrabber has more than doubled, it said. Rival site Shopping.com reported a 40 percent jump in November-to-date referrals to online retailers and said hot categories include kids and family, home and garden, and clothing and accessories. Despite the strong traffic, Monday is likely to be busier, said Shopping.com. Last year visitors to the site peaked between noon and 2 p.m. on Monday. Two of the season's hottest holiday gift items, the recently-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii games consoles, have been selling fast on Ebay. In the week to Nov. 24, 14,675 PlayStation 3 and 26,708 Wii consoles were sold through the site. The average price of the PS3 was US$1,186.39 while the Wii fetched an average $412.53, according to eBay Marketplace Research. Both prices are well above their suggested retail prices. Other hot electronics items include the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. BDP-1000 Blu-ray Disc player and Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod nano and iPod Shuffle, the company said.
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EBay Inc said on Wednesday it had  a strong quarterly performance in auctions, masked by a big net  loss due to a write-down, and that its full-year earnings would  be at the top end of expectations.
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The retailer reports strong earnings and lifts its outlook.
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Online auction king eBay (Quote, Chart) reported a better than 50 percent rise in quarterly revenue from last year and profits that jumped by about 77 percent compared to last year, thanks in part to its PayPal unit and growth overseas.
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Ebay says its Paypal system is slowly getting back to normal after breaking down six days ago.
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Auction site eBay is enjoying continued growth thanks to increased global sales and the success of PayPal.
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Hewlett-Packard Co  on  Tuesday reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings and  forecast results ahead of Wall Street targets as it sold more  PCs and server computers, sending its shares up 6 percent.
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Online marketplace eBay Inc.  said  on Wednesday quarterly profit rose 44 percent, helped by growth in its PayPal service, but results missed Wall Street expectations.
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eBay Inc.  offered about &#36;530 million to buy the remainder of South Korean affiliate Internet Auction Co. Ltd. as it pushes deeper into Asia, saying key shareholders had accepted a 79 percent increase to an earlier offer.
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Dow Jones futures rose 37 points recently, while Nasdaq futures climbed 6 points and Standard &amp; Poor&#39;s futures edged up 3.60 points.
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EBay posted a 50 percent rise in net profit on strength in its core auction and payments businesses, but left its 2007 outlook unchanged, defying Wall Street's hopes for a boost.
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Plus: Phone sales boost Nokia profits past forecasts...eBay posts large quarterly loss on Skype write-down...IBM services buoy earnings...Yahoo net profit falls...Samsung posts strong quarter.
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Stocks went from flat to higher after a stronger-than-expected reading on new homes sales for July. That followed a better-than-expected durable goods report.
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Plus: eBay warns of weaker 2008 results...Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims...Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits.
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E-tailers have laggards and penny-pinchers to thank for last week&#39;s brisk sales, which grew 25 percent over the comparable period last year, according to comScore.Procrastinators and deal-seekers helped create a &quot;flurry&quot; of online spending last week in the U.S., keeping retail e-sales strong, comScore said Sunday.Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21 -- the first 51 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers have spent $26.3 billion online, up 19 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.So far, the heaviest online shopping day this season was Dec. 10, the so-called &quot;Green Monday,&quot; a term coined by eBay for the second Monday in December, which the vendor has identified as particularly heavy e-sales day. U.S. shoppers spent $881 million that day, up 33 percent from the corresponding day in 2006.By contrast, Cyber Monday, the first workday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., ranks as this holiday season&#39;s ninth heaviest online shopping day, with $733 million in sales. Cyber Monday is considered the day when holiday online shopping kicks into high gear.Overall, comScore expects this year&#39;s holiday season to generate about $29.5 billion in online spending, which would represent a 20 percent increase from the same period in 2006.
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EBay Inc., a perennial investor darling that defied the dot-com collapse, is warning Wall Street that its 2005 financial performance will fall short of bullish expectations.