Analysts were expecting EBay’s earnings to decline in Q4 08 and they weren’t disappointed. Net income for the company came in at $367 million, down 31 percent from $531 million in Q4 07. Revenues during the holiday shopping season were down 7 percent to $2.04 billion. The immediate result: EBay’s stock fell nearly 6 percent in after hours trading to $0.78.
It’s been a tough year for EBay. The company is losing market share to Amazon, its core auction business is losing favor, and the 1,000 workers were laid off in Q4.
Meanwhile, EBay’s Skype division’s Q4 revenues were up 26 percent over last year to $145 million. And 35 million new users signed on during the quarter. Good news, except that Skype commands a much lower profit margin that EBay’s core auction business.
