Dan Buchanon

eBay Q1: Sales and Profit Ahead of Estimates

If you find the company to be so wretched and stupid, why do you waste your time and alleged intellect following it? Shouldn't you be smarter and reallocate your resources to companies not run by MBAs? Or consumer companies not impacted by the worst global down turn since the late 1920s? Good luck finding those, kind sir.


On Apr 22 06:27 PM Leftfield wrote:

> When will compliant boards finally start axing failed CEO's? Donohoe
> has eliminated negative feedback against buyers and allows even non-paying
> "buyers" to leave destructive feedback against sellers. He has sold
> out to large purveyors of Chinese dreck and ousted countless small
> sellers and the unique attic finds they brought in.
>
> I'm sure management by MBA dictated uniformity of sellers and that
> makes for less of the labor-intensive supervision of small ones.
> So, Ebay's uniqueness is squandered, bringing actual first-time-ever
> losses of revenue instead of double-digit gains.
>
> The economy is no excuse. This site would be the best anywhere for
> cash-strapped sellers and buyers to raise cash or find castoff bargains
> but for epic management stupidity.

eBay Offers Something Amazon Cannot

The author's point about both companies' essentially earning the same about in profit (roughly $1.45 to $1.50 per share on an annual basis) hits you right in the crown jewels -- if you're look at this from an investment opportunity perspective. It takes Amazon about $20 billion in annual revenue to eek out $1.50 per share; while it generates the same per share profit on roughly $9 billion in annual revenue. In an economic environment where overhead can be an albatross, Ebay's model sans infrastructure seems less risky to me. And the 10 P/E is almost giving it away.

Indeed, Ms. Norrington's turn around strategy will make or break Ebay. If she doesn't reverse growth trends, there will need to be a major shake up at the company. You can almost smell the angst.

Amazon vs. eBay: Follow Up Q&A

How much market share does Amazon take from sellers on its site?

Amazon vs. eBay: Follow Up Q&A

There are victims and winners. You call yourself a victim.


On Feb 09 01:17 AM fairytrixy wrote:

> I am now a victim of eBay's continued abuse of their customers. Due
> to my micro selling volume and one negative feedback (that was offered
> prior to resolution and a complete transaction. It was my mistake
> I put the wrong bracelet in and envelope headed for France. the buyer
> contacted me twice within 2 days and by the time I was going over
> my messages she had already left the negative and filed dispute with
> paypal. I also had a gentleman from the NY decide that because I
> had this negative he demanded in a message that I answer him immeadiatly
> or there would be trouble. Even though his item reached him the very
> next day he left a neutral stating that the product was fine but
> we are slow with customer service and this was after 7 business days
> from cleared payment. the next day I logged in and I had 0 items
> for sale and a restriction from selling for 30 days, due to "non
> seller performance" whatever that means I am at the bottom 1% of
> all sellers on ebay. My DSR scores are not low enough to cause this
> my feedback is 99.5% so if you think that the guy who just hit 1
> mil. stars is allowed to have 2356 negatives in a twelve month period
> which is ripe for that person to rip people off on a weekly basis.
> I know I am spouting but I wish that someone anyone would just give
> back my ability to make ends meet. This is not just about stock and
> corp. it is about I think 50,000 or more sellers who have been added
> to the mix of the unemployed. I am worried that even after the 30
> days they will have been paid the fees I still owe and I will be
> left wondering how I will pay the bills. I do not think that the
> stock I had on ebay of collectible vintage and antique items will
> fly on Amazon.
> What will it take to change this. Amazon and eBay could both be winning
> here but eBay just needs to lay dawn on the mat and take the count.

Amazon vs. eBay: Follow Up Q&A

Here's a question grand pooba, Wingo: Why are you long on Amazon when you make so much money consulting for eBay sellers?

How to Fix eBay

Excellent story. My sense is that a lot of this tinkering is on its way. But What you'll find is that half of the universe will say "glory be" they're fixing it. The other half will cry about leaving the old ways behind. Change is good. Or you die.

Amazon vs. eBay: The Giants of E-Commerce Duke It Out

Scot, Why do you only focus on less than 30% of the company?

The SKYpe Is Not Falling

Hey Wake Up! Hav e you seen the core fundamentals of eBay, PayPal and Skype? Go take some finance classes and do the math. Those businesses are not withering away. Just because your mum is annoyed you still live in her basement trying to sell her afghan's on an auction format that the world doesn't want, don't start crying fowl. Ebay generated $60 Billion in GMV in 2008. PayPal posted $60 Billion in TPV. Skype hit nearly $600 Million in sales. How much did you make?

The SKYpe Is Not Falling

Great story. Skype is one of the best internet companies on the planet. Period. 405 milion users is nearly the size of the US population. All these silly sellers keep whining about how they booted from the site. This has nothing to do with them. They didn't want Skype on Ebay when it was bought so there you have it. It's not on Ebay. Now beef up your lousy customer service and stop whining. Someday Skype will have a billion users and no one will remember how many Pez dispensers you sold back in 1999.

eBay's Revenue Diversification Increasing

The reason that this story goes unnoticed on Wall Street is because the analysts following this company are still spending their time counting listings on the site and ignoring eBay's overall revenue stream -- at the expense of their investors. It's like valuing Wells Fargo's business solely on the teller activity it gets at its retail banking location. I think management faces a huge challenge in getting the media and investors to focus their obsession with the US ebay.com business on all the other things it has put in to place over the last several quarters.

Revenue diversification is a good thing in a global economy such as this even if it means compression on margins because it means greater market share and stability across more currencies and markets. So, while the Street punishes the stock for its maturing US ebay.com business, the world is also punishing the Street for its own myopia.

If the world hasn't noticed yet, these "smart money" guys aren't so smart. They built a financial services sector on a house of cards and expect us to believe their investment recommendations. Ha!.

Microsoft and eBay Team Up: Desperate or Brilliant?

Wow. "Monkeyman", your information is exceptionally retarded. Go read some SEC filings and cull out some financial data on the companies you reference. Google Check out is a pittance. An absolutely smudge of a business.

On Dec 03 06:45 PM monkeyman wrote:
>
> I said "I would think PayPal and the financial sector would have
> been their most obvious expansion, but this has been going slow and
> only accelerated a bit when Google started Google Checkout." Most
> of the growth in Paypal and Skype only started / was scene early-mid
> 2007.
>
> How fast has Google Checkout grown and how fast did the PayPal shopping
> cart grow? When auction sales slump on eBay, so does the stock price
> and revenue, ( how much of PayPal's revenue is tied into payments
> for ebay purchases? ). My argument is that eBay could have grown
> without raising auction/listing fees or PayPal fees, but that is
> the route they chose.
>
> I didn't bother mentioning Skype because of its initial reason for
> being purchased, to integrate with eBay and provide sellers a communications
> infrastructure.
>
> My point has to do more with the how eBay started out and the mantra
> behind the company to make it an equal market place for both the
> big and little guys, and this is no longer the case because the auctions
> are still what define eBay (as a stock), i.e. if there is data showing
> eBay listings are down and sales are down, the stock is significantly
> affected.

eBay's Disruptive Innovations Come Full Circle

Dinah, What exactly is the disruptive innovation you reference? Opening Pandora's box? No where in your story do you name the disruptive innovation you claim has come full circle.

Please clarify. Or stop using mixed metaphors

Microsoft and eBay Team Up: Desperate or Brilliant?

Monkeyman - How can you say that the company lacks diversification? Please do your homework. PayPal is a $2+ Billion company. With revenue coming from merchant services business greater than what is being derived from eBay.com. Skype is a $500+million company. More than 54% of revenue comes from outside the U.S.

eBay: Bottom Is a Few Months Away

Bob C - You're right. After 25 years of work, I don't have a full time job. Ever wonder how I can be 47 and can afford not to have to work. Perhaps I'm not as insipid as you think I am. Organisation is spelled accurately if you're English. Read my bio further.

eBay: Bottom Is a Few Months Away

@pwslr - As much as this may sting, let me be so bold as to say that your position comes from the belief that management should or still sees small sellers as the core of its conglomerate of a business which now includes dozens of brands. The fact of the matter is that if you read all the so called silly analyst reports as you might say, this organisation no longer views small sellers as integral to its business.

You are absolute correct when you argue it from your small seller point of view, but the market and business have moved away from that. My perspective is from the macro -- to be inclusive of every potential piece of revenue and income stream that this entire business that EBAY stock is represented by. Sorry if that pains you but that is why I write for stock oriented blogs, not seller or buyer community blogs.