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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 11:21 AM
by
Kim Peterson
PayPal is a shining star within eBay, and a reason to buy the stock at its cheap price. The online payment service has grown fast since eBay bought it for $1.5 billion in 2002. Now you can use PayPal to buy airline tickets, rent movies at Blockbuster and pay bills. PayPal is used for about 12% of all online payments in the U.S. (Click here for a breakdown of PayPal's fees). Still, I wonder how well PayPal fits these days within eBay, a company that has been distracted by policy changes, user complaints, changing management and a strategy overhaul. EBay certainly has made PayPal what it is today, but are eBay's struggles limiting PayPal's potential? EBay shares rose less than a percent today to $28.16.
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Posted
Jun 23 2008, 12:15 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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Four tech companies land on Seeking Alpha's "Six screaming stock buys with hidden gems" report: Amazon, Apple, Google and eBay. I agree that each company has its "hidden gem," but not sure that every gem makes its owner a screaming buy. YouTube is a gem within Google, but it doesn't collect much revenue and Google hasn't figured out how to monetize it. Amazon has never disclosed Kindle sales figures, so we don't know how the device is affecting the company's finances.
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Posted
Jun 04 2008, 10:02 AM
by
Kim Peterson
More analysts are calling for eBay to get rid of Skype, the Internet calling company it bought for $2.6 billion in 2005. Analysts at Bernstein Research say the acquisition was "simply a mistake" that didn't enhance eBay's core auction business, according to Dealbook. EBay shares are currently up nearly 3% to $30.04.
Skype is expected to contribute $523 million in revenue this year, but add only 3% to eBay's operating margins, the analysts said. Suggesting a Skype divestiture is old news. The real question is what should the auction company do with the money it gets from the sale. Bernstein imagines
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Posted
Jun 03 2008, 09:56 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Auctions are disappearing on eBay and being replaced by fixed-price item sales. BusinessWeek says that's due to the changing needs of the consumer, who thinks bidding is too much hassle. Nope. Don't blame the bidder. EBay is doing everything it can to choke the life out of its own auction business -- and that's a big gamble.
Yes, time is precious. And yes, there are people who would rather "buy it now" on eBay at a higher price than spend days in a prolonged bidding war. About 42% of eBay auctions have a "buy it now" option, a figure that has grown 22% in the last year, according to BusinessWeek. EBay shares are up nearly 1% today to $29.59.
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Posted
Feb 25 2008, 12:24 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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The weeklong boycott of the eBay auction site ends today. But did it accomplish anything? Fed up with recent fee hikes and other policy changes, some eBay sellers decided to boycott the site from Feb. 18 through today. Third-party tracking sites say auction listings have dropped about 13% since the strike started to 13 million items listed. Ebay shares dipped slightly over the past week, but have returned to where they started -- at just under $28. The share price closed up 30 cents to $28.01 today on news that Shopping.com CEO Josh Silverman will now run eBay's Skype online telephony unit.
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Posted
Jan 22 2008, 12:22 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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EBay chief executive Meg Whitman will retire from the post soon, the WSJ reported today. And that means eBay is at the most critical point in its history. The retirement news isn't a surprise; we discussed the idea of her resignation earlier this month. Whitman, 51, has been giving her top executives more responsibilities recently and could be grooming one to replace her. EBay investors weren't too thrilled today. The company's shares fell more than 4 percent to close at $27.13. I thought the market would react more favorably, considering that eBay's share price has dropped by almost a third since October. Whitman's legacy has some black marks, such as the overpriced Skype acquisition and the increasing anger among a user base irritated by high fees. I don't think she's done enough to improve the user experience, and as a result companies like Amazon have become a serious competitive threat. But what outshines those flaws is this: Whitman has kept the company growing and profitable, which is exactly what a CEO should do.
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Posted
Jan 03 2008, 03:21 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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There's been some talk lately about whether eBay CEO Meg Whitman should resign. EBay would be invigorated if she did. Recently, she's been criticized for signing on as the financial co-chair of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Whitman met Romney years ago when she consulted for his private equity firm. At BloggingStocks, Gary Sattler thinks that Whitman might request a paid leave of absence from eBay to work on the Romney campaign. I really doubt that. It's ludicrous to think that a CEO of a major public company would do such a thing. If Whitman indeed asks for time off to campaign, eBay shareholders have every right to be angry. Putting politics aside, is it time for Whitman to step down? If you're an eBay shareholder, you might think so. The stock was abysmal in 2006 and continued to disappointment in 2007, staying mostly in the $30-$35 range when companies like Amazon saw shares go through the roof. (Ebay closed yesterday at $32.49.)
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Posted
Dec 13 2007, 10:14 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
 It's about time eBay cleared the trash from its site.
The online auctioneer plans to improve the "user experience" next year. At the top of the list: getting rid of sellers with "unethical or questionable business practices," including the ones that charge huge shipping fees.
EBay should have been more aggressive in this area long ago. I've heard lots of stories about buyers who pay big shipping fees, only to see on the delivered package that the actual postage was less than $10. Buyers have to be really savvy to figure out the minefield of shipping ripoffs on the site, and that's not a good user experience.
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Posted
Nov 26 2007, 07:08 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Is any work getting done today? It's Cyber Monday, a marketing gimmick that turned into a real trend. Retailers predict that 72 million people will shop online today, up from 61 million last year.
GPS systems are going to be a hot gift, and Garmin is seeing the investor love today. It's shares are up 8.5% to $99.63
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