07/22/2009：EBAY/QCOM ER

07/22/2009：EBAY/QCOM ER

EBAY AH +0.92-〉20.37 成交量5.9M，日總成交量34.7M
QCOM AH -0.06-〉48.39 成交量3.7M，日總成交量25.6M

Economy keeps hurting eBay as 2Q profit falls

EBay 2nd-qtr profit falls as drop in marketplaces revenue overshadows PayPal, Skype growth

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The recession continued to hurt eBay Inc. in the second quarter, as earnings and revenue fell amid a sales decline in the main online marketplace, overshadowing growth in its payments and Skype communications units.

The pioneer of online auctions, which is now trying to revitalize its Web site, managed to beat Wall Street's expectations, though, and predicted third-quarter earnings and revenue that are largely in line with analysts' views.

Shares of San Jose-based eBay rose 81 cents, or 4.2 percent, in extended trading after the results were released Wednesday. It finished regular trading up 52 cents, or nearly 3 percent, at $19.45.

EBay said it earned $327.3 million, or 25 cents per share, in the April-June period, a 29 percent decrease from $460.3 million, or 35 cents per share, a year earlier. This is the third consecutive quarter in which eBay's profit has decreased.

The company earned 37 cents per share after excluding one-time items, beating by a penny the predictions made by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue fell 5 percent to $2.1 billion, slightly ahead of analysts' estimates of $1.99 billion.

Revenue from eBay's marketplaces unit, which includes eBay, Shopping.com and other e-commerce Web sites, sank 14 percent to $1.26 billion -- a decline the company attributed to the weak economy and strength in the dollar. When the dollar is stronger, transactions in other currencies translate into fewer dollars.

The company's payments unit, which includes online payment service PayPal and short-term credit service Bill Me Later, saw revenue climb 11 percent to $669.3 million.

Revenue from online telecommunications service Skype jumped 25 percent to $170 million. EBay said in April that it plans to spin Skype off in the first half of 2010 through an initial public offering, undoing the $2.6 billion acquisition it made in 2005. The company ended up taking a $900 million write-down on Skype in 2007 -- basically acknowledging it had significantly overvalued it.

The company is also trying to resolve a dispute with Joltid Ltd., which was founded by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom and owns the peer-to-peer technology that Skype licenses for its software.

EBay's gross merchandise volume -- which measures the value of all transactions on eBay, excluding vehicles -- fell 10 percent to $11.13 billion for the quarter. The number of active users, an indicator of how well the company is able to attract new buyers and sellers, inched up just 2 percent to 88.4 million.

The company continued to work on attracting and keeping buyers and sellers during the quarter, including eliminating some upfront selling fees to encourage greater use by casual sellers.

In an interview, Chief Executive John Donahoe said he feels good about the company's efforts to improve its marketplace, and noted that buyer and seller satisfaction were up during the quarter.

"We feel pleased about the progress. That said, there is still a lot of work to do," he said.

Donahoe called the quarter "solid" and said that the e-commerce market is stabilizing -- a trend that began in the back half of the first quarter and continued in the second quarter through to the present.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Benjamin Schachter called the quarter "pretty solid" overall. While eBay's issues haven't all been fixed, the company is "at least heading in the right direction," he said.

For the current quarter, eBay forecast a profit of 22 cents to 24 cents per share, or 34 cents to 36 cents on an adjusted basis, on $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion in revenue. Analysts were looking for a profit of 35 cents per share on $2 billion in sales.

Qualcomm 3Q profit edges lower

Qualcomm posts slightly lower 3rd-quarter profit, revenue; shares fall after hours

NEW YORK (AP) -- Qualcomm Inc. posted a slight decrease in its fiscal third-quarter profit Wednesday, though CEO Paul Jacobs said the chip maker had a strong quarter and healthy demand -- a sign of recovery in the wireless market.

Nonetheless, the company's sales outlook for the current quarter seemed to disappoint investors, who sent shares lower in after-hours trading.

For the March-June period, San Diego-based Qualcomm earned $737 million, or 44 cents per share. This is down 1.5 percent from $748 million, or 45 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings were 54 cents per share, slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations.

Revenue edged marginally lower to $2.75 billion from $2.76 billion.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 52 cents per share on sales of $2.73 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Qualcomm makes chips for cell phones and licenses its technology to chip and handset makers. These royalties on patented technologies account for most of its profit.

Jacobs, who also serves as chairman, said the quarter saw strong licensing and royalty revenue, stemming from healthy demand in the previous quarter. Shipments of mobile chip sets were also strong, pointing to a recovery in the mobile phone market.

"I'm very pleased with our strong operating performance in this uncertain economic environment," Jacobs said in a conference call with analysts.

Despite the economic turmoil, Qualcomm said it expects a healthy fourth quarter, and raised its 2009 revenue forecast.

For the current quarter, the company expects revenue in the range of $2.55 billion to $2.75 billion, the midpoint of which is below analysts' expectations of $2.71 billion.

For the full year, Qualcomm expects revenue between $10.25 billion and $10.45 billion. This is an increase from its earlier outlook of $9.85 billion to $10.25 billion. Analysts expect $10.39 billion.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long called the results and forecast solid and reiterated an "Outperform" rating on Qualcomm's shares.

Shares fell $2.45, or 5.1 percent, to $46 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed up 47 cents at $48.45 in the regular session.