Skype sale boosts eBay Q4 results


21 Jan 2010

The sale of Skype with a gain of US$1.4 billion combined with the growth of its online transaction company Paypal has led to a surge in profits for e-commerce firm ebay in the fourth quarter of 2009.

eBay’s US$1.36-billion net profit for the last three calendar months of 2009 saw the company’s revenue almost quadruple, far outperforming Wall Street forecasts.

In a statement, eBay said this net income of US$1.36 billion was up on last year’s US$367.2 million, with share prices rising to US$1.02 from 29c.

“The company has come a long way over the last year,” Scott Kessler, analyst at Standard & Poor’s, New York, told BusinessWeek.

“They’ve benefited from both a much healthier global economy and a pretty strong holiday shopping season for online retail.”