eBay Inc. Reports First Quarter 2009 Results
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY - News) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009. The ecommerce company posted first quarter revenue of $2.02 billion, a $171.6 million year …
Context & Ripple Effects
eBay's Q1 2009 print shows revenue of $2.02 billion, up $171.6 million year over year — yet the syndicated framing tells the real story: VentureBeat headlined it as an earnings dip 'despite Skype, Paypal boost,' meaning the marketplace core is decelerating while the payments and communications units are what keep growth positive.
GigaOM's angle sharpens the second thread in this report — Skype's growth is being discussed with an IPO in mind, putting a strategic question mark over an asset eBay acquired rather than built. Both angles point the same direction: this quarter is less about the auction business than about which pieces of eBay are worth owning.
First-order effects
- PayPal and Skype emerge as the reported growth engines of the quarter, shifting investor attention away from the auctions marketplace whose profitability is slipping.
- Skype's strong showing forces eBay's board onto the record about whether it intends to hold the unit or spin it out via IPO.
Second-order effects
- If Skype moves toward a public listing, eBay starts getting valued as a sum-of-parts conglomerate, pressuring management to defend why payments, communications, and marketplace belong under one roof.
- A publicly funded Skype would enter its communications markets with fresh capital, raising the competitive stakes for rivals in consumer VoIP.
Third-order effects
- The pattern — a maturing founding marketplace carried by faster-growing attached fintech and communications assets — points toward large e-commerce companies being restructured and valued by division rather than as monoliths.
The trend: Late-2000s e-commerce conglomerates are being re-rated on their fastest-growing attached assets — payments and communications — rather than their original marketplaces.