Ebay: Sales rise, profits fall
The online auction site eBay suffered a sharp drop in profits in the third quarter. Revenue, however, rose and exceeded expectations.
Overall, the surplus between July and September fell by 29 percent to 350 million dollars (234.6 million euros) compared to the same period last year, as the company announced in San Francisco. At the same time, however, revenues rose by almost six percent to 2.24 billion dollars, exceeding analysts' expectations. In the previous three quarters, Ebay had recorded declining sales for the year. According to the information provided, one of the reasons for the contrasting development of sales and profits is the company's increasing focus on fast-growing, low-margin businesses. At its online payment service PayPal, the number of customers rose by a fifth between June and September. The internet telephone subsidiary Skype gained 40 million new users and now has 521 million customers. (dpa)
