Ebay Earnings Recap: Company Warns of 1st Ever Quarterly Sales Decline in Q4

[mandy]

eBay registered its first ever decline in quarterly GMV in Q3 with a drop of 1%.  The company is forecasting its first ever quarterly revenue decline in Q4.  The company blamed the economy rather than the boinktards in the top ranks of management for the disappointing forecast.

The consumer spending slowdown that first hit EBay Inc. in mid-August could ruin its Christmas sales and drag on into 2009, the online auctioneer's executives said Wednesday, sending its shares down 3.5% in after-hours trading.

The tumble followed a drop of $2.41, or 13.6%, in the regular session to $15.33 as investors remained skeptical about EBay's efforts to counter stalled growth in its online auctions business and rising competition in the midst of a global economic slowdown.

The San Jose company reduced its 2008 revenue forecast and projected its first-ever quarterly sales decline to close the year...

full article: http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-...8677.story

EBay's marketplaces revenue rose 4 percent to $1.38 billion in the third quarter. New marketplace listings climbed 26 percent from a year earlier, the fourth consecutive quarterly increase, EBay said.

The average selling price on EBay's Web sites fell 7 percent, as consumers globally were squeezed by higher fuel and food prices, job losses and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. They are buying ``fewer large ticket items,'' Donahoe said today. ..

full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZMzcD1EQqEc&refer=home

[mandy]

From Auctionbytes:

Metrics for the eBay Marketplaces business (not including Rent.com, Shopping.com, and eBay's classifieds websites) revealed that Gross Merchandise Volume was down 9% compared to the previous quarter and down 1% year over year. (See page 10 of eBay's press release.) The number of eBay Stores was down 3% from the previous quarter and up 3% year over year. The percentage of eBay Stores hosted internationally dropped from 46% in the third quarter of 2007 and from 45% in the second quarter of 2008 to 43% in the third quarter of 2008.

There were two trends worth noting. Fixed-price trading as a percentage of GMV and advertising revenue have both increased. At the same time, year-over-year GMV growth rates fell. These inverse relationships could conceivably support the argument that changes that favor fixed-price listings over auctions hurt the marketplace, and that advertising appearing on search results pages that sends shoppers off of eBay hurts the marketplace...

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m10/i16/s01