eBay's Whitman says high gas prices and slumping housing market will help eBay

[Kristijntje]

Even though Wal-Mart and eBay share much of the same customer base, eBay CEO Meg Whitman said Wednesday that she's not worried that record-high gas prices and the housing slump pose any significant threats to the company's business.

"Historically, eBay and Wal-Mart have a common customer base. But eBay does better when customer spending retreats," Whitman told a gathering of analysts at the Goldman Sachs 8th Annual Global Internet Conference in Las Vegas.

That's certainly not the case with Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500). In fact, the world's largest retailer warned earlier this month that it expects sales to suffer in the coming months as its mostly low-income shoppers struggle with higher prices at the pump and less money to spend in its stores.

But Whitman pointed out that eBay's business tends to run "counter-cyclical to macro-economic trends."...

full article: http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/23/news/companies/ebay/