Meg who?
eBay
With earnings and revenue climbing 22% and 24%, respectively, eBay isn't the growth demon it used to be, but at least it's showing its all-weather skills as it navigates through this iffy economy.
It's hard not to be in awe of what Whitman built. When the company mentions that its eBay Motors division has sold more than 3 million cars, or that Skype users have logged more than 100 billion chat minutes, the cumulative sums become staggering to comprehend. And it all happened under Whitman's watch.
Not that eBay is perfect. Most of the company's growth is coming from its lower-margin PayPal and Skype divisions. I also don't like how marketplace revenue continues to grow more quickly than the gross merchandise value sold through the site. In other words, despite all of the fancy talk about lowering insertion fees to become more appealing to sellers, the company is still skimming more off the top.
As great as PayPal is and Skype may one day be, Whitman left at the right time. Making eBay.com itself relevant again will be a challenge, and Wall Street loves to send negative feedback ratings when things don't go as planned.
News to go
Big Blue isn't feeling all that blue after posting better-than-expected quarterly results. IBM
CBS
- Cyberspace Broadcasting System
- Creating Better Shows
- Cannot Boost Survivor
- Change Before Stagnancy
What's worse? Legacy carriers or legacy brokers? Continental Airlines
And finally, California Pizza Kitchen
Have a great day out there.