Ebay hammers home 50% net income rise as Irish growth ‘steaming ahead’

INTERNET auction site eBay announced a rise in second-quarter net income to $375m (€273m) yesterday as it confirmed its performance in Ireland is beating expectations.

Ebay Ireland managing director John McElligott said: “Ebay is doing very well in Ireland and we are very happy. The performance is beating expectations and we feel growth is steaming ahead.”

Mr McElligott added that eBay, which employ 1,200 people in Dublin have no further plans for job creation in Ireland.

Second-quarter net income climbed 50% to $375.8m, or 27 cents a share, from $250m, or 17 cents, a year earlier California-based eBay said last night. Sales advanced 30% to $1.83 billion.

EBay reduced clutter on the website and boosted average revenue per listing by raising auction fees last year. That discouraged users from posting items that were unlikely to sell. Sales at the PayPal payment-processing unit rose as more people outside the US and more companies used the service.

Additional reporting Bloomberg.