EBay Inc. (EBAY), operator of the world’s largest online marketplace, reported fourth-quarter revenue that beat some analysts’ estimates after record holiday sales on the Web and mobile devices.
Sales climbed 18 percent to $3.99 billion, the company said today in a statement. That exceeded the $3.98 billion average estimate compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was 70 cents a share, matching analysts’ predictions.
Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe has been pushing to generate more revenue from big retailers selling goods on EBay, and from consumers shopping on smartphones and tablets. The initiative has led to 14 straight quarters of sales growth and a 75 percent share rally since he took the helm in March 2008.
“The legacy marketplaces business -- it’s kind of carried into mobile,” said Bill Smead, who helps oversee 340,378 EBay shares as chief investment officer at Seattle-based Smead Capital Management Inc. “You get involved with bidding or selling something on EBay, and it’s nice to carry around the device where you’re doing that with you.”
On Cyber Monday in November, at the beginning of last year’s holiday shopping season, sales transactions on EBay’s mobile applications more than doubled from the year before, while PayPal mobile-transaction volume almost tripled. EBay charges a fee for each item sold, and for each payment processed by PayPal.
After cutting about 3 percent of its workforce in October, PayPal hired three new vice presidents this week -- Arnold Goldberg from Box.net, Koby Avital from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Ryan Granard from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA)
Company Forecast
Net income in the fourth quarter fell to $751 million, or 57 cents a share, from $1.98 billion, or $1.51 cents, a year earlier, the company said.
Revenue in the current period will be $3.65 billion to $3.75 billion, EBay said, compared with an average analyst projection of $3.8 billion. The company forecast profit, excluding some items, of 60 cents to 62 cents a share, versus a 64-cent estimate.
Shares of EBay, which advanced 68 percent in 2012, rose less than 1 percent to $52.90 at the close in New York.
