|
|
EBay and Skype are breaking up. Credit: manu contreras via Flickr. Taking the first steps to unwind its strange 2005 marriage, EBay said today that it plans to spin off Internet phone service Skype through an initial public offering in 2010. The news comes a day after the San Jose online auction company said it would sell Internet search company StumbleUpon back to its founders.
Both announcements signal that EBay is making good on its promise to investors that it will focus on its online marketplace, rather than on the assorted businesses it has acquired over the last three years.
"Separating Skype will allow EBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines -- e-commerce and online payments -- and deliver long-term value to our stockholders," EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said in a release.
EBay bought Skype nearly four years ago with the idea that it could use voice over Internet protocol software to enable buyers and sellers to communicate (think haggling over prices) while conducting transactions. But some observers say that Skype has been a distraction for management, and ...
Read on »
Former EBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, shown here in 2005, announced that she's running for governor of California. (Credit: Ben Margot / Associated Press)
After months of dancing around the subject, former EBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman today finally made it official: She's running for governor of California as a Republican.
The announcement sets up a Silicon Valley showdown: Her prime competition from the GOP ranks looks to be Steve Poizner, the former high-tech executive who became California's insurance commissioner. Poizner made a fortune selling his start-up SnapTrak, to San Diego-based Qualcomm in 2000.
As Michael Finnegan writes today in a Times story about the gubernatorial contest, the candidates each are so rich from their success in high-tech business that they can afford to spend millions of dollars campaigning. He writes: As a first-time candidate, Whitman faces enormous risks. She has never undergone the intense media scrutiny that accompanies any serious bid for high office. She has only begun to meet the state's vast network of Republican Party players. And with no experience in state office, she must study quickly the panoply of issues facing the nation's most populous state, among them a surge in unemployment, substandard public schools, traffic-clogged freeways and a dysfunctional Legislature that routinely fails to overcome budget shortfalls.
Another Republican considering a run: former Silicon Valley congressman Tom Campbell. Their potential challengers on the Democratic side include Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, as well Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Whitman's chief rival: Steve Poizner, who is also a former Silicon Valley executive. (Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
-- Chris Gaither
EBay reported lower fourth-quarter profit and its first-ever drop in quarterly sales, as the global economic slowdown and the stronger dollar hurt its business.
The online auction company recorded net income of $367 million, or 29 cents a share, for the last three months of 2008. That was down 31% from $531 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.
Net revenue fell 7% to $2.04 billion, reversing the persistent growth EBay has posted since its founding in 1995. Sales at the Marketplaces unit, which includes its core online auction business as well as Shopping.com, StubHub and other online businesses, fell 16% to $1.27 billion.
The San Jose company's shares fell nearly 6% in after-hours trading, giving back all the gains they made in regular trading, when they rose 73 cents to $13.28.
Excluding some items, EBay reported income of 41 cents a share versus 45 cents a year ago. That beat some analysts' estimates of 40 cents a share. EBay said it expected first-quarter revenue to be $1.80 billion to $2.05 billion with net earnings of 21 to 23 cents a share and operating profit of 32 to 34 cents a share.
For the full year, EBay reported net income of $1.78 billion, or $1.36 a share, on sales of $8.54 billion, compared with net income of $348 million, or 25 cents a share, on sales of $7.67 billion in 2007.
“While the holiday season was tough and competitive, our overall results for 2008 were strong,” Chief Executive John Donahoe said.
The drop in fourth-quarter sales wasn’t a surprise. When EBay ...
Read on »
Millions of Americans are spending more of their time these days in Azeroth, a land where they don't have to worry about economic crises. There, you can make a living as a tailor, healer or equipment vendor. And if you find yourself falling on hard times, you don't collect welfare. You go out and kill more gold-toting monsters.
Azeroth, the fictional world in which the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game World of Warcraft is set, is bustling with activity. Gearing up for the release of the second expansion pack, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, which hits stores today, the game's 11 million players worldwide logged more hours in the virtual world than usual -- a phenomenon seen by developer Blizzard whenever an update is imminent.
Activision Blizzard, the parent company that lost more than $4 billion in market value in just one week last month, is looking for a huge boost from the update to its best-selling title. "Historically, recessions have kind of affected us less -- not that we're unaffected," said Rob Pardo, Blizzard's executive vice president of game design. "But I think gaming, in particular, has a lot of value for the money."
The new version adds a slew of original items and quests for players to complete, as well as upping the maximum level a character can achieve, from 70 to 80.
One might think the U.S. economic snowstorm would cause users tight on money to cut the $15 monthly fee from their budgets faster than ...
Read on »
EBay Inc. posted a third-quarter profit today that beat analysts' forecasts. The online auction giant reversed a loss from the same period a year earlier, when it took a big charge stemming from its acquisition of telecommunications company Skype.
EBay earned $492 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with a loss of $936 million, or 69 cents a share, a year earlier, when it took a $1.4-billion write-down for Skype. Excluding certain items, EBay said it would have made $592 million, or 46 cents a share, in the quarter. Analysts were expecting 41 cents a share.
Revenue grew 12% to $2.12 billion, a bit lower than anticipated. Analysts were expecting revenue of $2.13 billion.
But EBay warned that its full-year revenue would fall below its previous forecast as the company attempts to revive growth in its online auction business.
Shares fell 14% in regular trading to $15.33 on fears that the deepening recession would hammer EBay's online auction business. Similar concerns hit online retailer Amazon.com Inc., which fell 13% to $48.72.
EBay's stock has sold off sharply in recent months. The San Jose company is in the midst of an overhaul. Last week EBay warned that third-quarter revenue would be at the low end of a previous forecast of $2.1 billion to $2.15 billion and that it planned to cut 10% of its staff.
"We believe that macro weakness will continue to crimp consumer demand," Youssef Squali of Jefferies & Co. wrote in a research note Tuesday.
Chief Executive John Donahoe is trying to shake up the business to catch up with rival Amazon.com, sometimes making moves that have riled online sellers.
He said today that he was overall pleased with EBay's performance in light of the "very challenging external environment" that he expects to continue into the fourth quarter and beyond. "These are turbulent times for which no one has the perfect playbook," he said. He also said turmoil in the markets was having an effect on consumer spending and that EBay was feeling "that impact across all of our platforms."
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: EBay CEO John Donahoe. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
 Against the backdrop of an ailing economy, Internet auction house and retailer EBay said today it would lay off 10% of its global workforce, or about 1,000 employees and several hundred temporary workers, in an effort to shore up its businesses. EBay also said it plans to spend about $1.3 billion on acquisitions to pump up its online payment and classified advertising businesses as it tries to brace itself for the spreading financial crisis.
Shares fell as much as 8% in early trading to their lowest level in more than five years. Investors are concerned that EBay's online auction business is vulnerable as consumer spending declines, the U.S. housing market slumps and fuel prices remain high. The auction business has already faced slowing growth over the past few years. Chief Executive John Donahoe warned that economic weakness and the stronger dollar were affecting Ebay.
The San Jose company said the move to cut its 15,000-person work force was unrelated to the potential slowdown in e-commerce. Instead EBay is trying to make its business more competitive in the face of declining profits and stagnant growth.
EBay said it would take a restructuring charge of as much as $80 million in the fourth quarter. It will also eliminate open positions.
It also said it would hit the low end of its revenue forecast of $2.1 billion to $2.15 billion, but exceed the high end of its earnings forecast range of 39 cents to 41 cents per share, before certain items. The company had previously said it would report earnings between 30 cents and 32 cents a share. It will release its earnings on Oct. 15.
EBay had been the subject of layoff rumors for weeks.
The company also announced that it would buy PayPal rival Bill Me Later, an online payments firm based in Timonium, Md., for $945 million in cash and stock. It will combine Bill Me Later with ...
Read on »
 Call it a big win for online auctioneer EBay. The San Jose company announced today that Netscape Communications co-founder and all-around golden geek Marc Andreessen had joined its board of directors.
In a statement, EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said Andreessen's insights would be invaluable as the company seeks to "drive further innovation on our platform, invest in growth opportunities and develop technology that will further benefit our customers, build powerful communities and enhance e-commerce."
Translation: EBay is counting on Andreessen's mojo to help outmaneuver Amazon and Google, which have been siphoning some of its merchants. Things are only bound to get tougher with the economy preparing for what Andreessen last year predicted would be a financial "nuclear winter."
Andreessen, who through a representative declined to comment, pioneered today's Internet as the co-creator of the first widely used browser. He pulled off another major coup with Opsware (formerly known as Loudcloud), which he sold to Hewlett-Packard for more than $1.6 billion in 2007.
He's currently working on social networking site Ning. He's also a widely followed blogger and investor. He has invested in Digg, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Qik, LinkedIn, Meebo and Scribd, among others. Earlier this year, he joined the board of social networking phenom Facebook.
-- Jessica Guynn
Andreessen photo by Randi Lynn Beach / Special to The Times
 If the Wall Street meltdown wasn't depressing enough, Google chairman Eric Schmidt and founder Sergey Brin fielded questions about the state of the Silicon Valley economy Wednesday. Their conclusion: Not so good.
And it's not just that the whole Web 2.0 thing is starting to seem played-out. A malaise has been creeping into the high-tech sector.
Sources of funding for start-ups have been drying up. Major companies, including Google, have seen their once soaring shares decline (even after rising nearly 5% today, the Nasdaq is down 17% in 2008). Hewlett-Packard and others are laying off thousands of employees. Nielsen Online said today that online banners and other display ads, lifeblood for many Web companies, declined 6% in the first half of the year over the same period last year, as financial services companies in particular cut back.
And this week, people are expecting more layoffs at EBay -- as many as 1,500 folks. It all began with an article in Barron's on Monday that cited a report from a Colorado investment research firm, suggesting that EBay would cut 10% of its 15,000 employees. Wedge Partners' Brian Blair and Ryan Hunter wrote that the company's business was "deteriorating."
Of course, EBay doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. And many analysts are bullish on the moves by Chief Executive John Donahoe, who took the reins from Meg Whitman in March, to shore up the San Jose auction company's business. But Wedge Partners is giving EBay a low bid of confidence. A key factor will be the performance of a new search platform the online auction powerhouse is rolling out soon, Wedge said.
There is no question that EBay has had its share of challenges this year. And it may need to trim its workforce, analysts say. Trouble is, they say, EBay is probably not alone.
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe. Credit: EBay
There are lots of great things about shopping online: You don't have to elbow through crowds during sales, you don't have to try things on in stuffy dressing rooms and, for once, you get snail mail that's not bills or junk.
But there are some downsides as well, especially for the brand-obsessed: It's sometimes easy to get swindled into buying knock-off products.
Anyone who's tried to buy designer bags or jeans online knows that no matter how many times a seller assures you the goods are authentic, they're often not.
Lucky for you, there are people out there like Chris Johnson who troll the Internet looking for the people selling fakes and prosecuting them. Read the full story about these fashion sleuths for more details about how he finds the knock-offs online and in stores, and what he does when he finds them.
-- Alana Semuels
Photo: Chris Johnson with a pair of fake True Religion jeans. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
 Tonight is Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's big moment at the GOP convention, when the nation finds out if she's ready for prime time. But the warm-up act includes two powerful women from the technology industry who know how to handle the spotlight (and a wireless microphone) -- Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.
As our colleagues Maeve Reston and Noam Levey reported today, Whitman, the former chief executive of EBay, will take the stage in St. Paul, Minn., tonight to speak about the economy and energy. Then Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, will speak about what the first term of a McCain presidency would look like.
Whitman and Fiorina are strong backers of McCain. Whitman is co-chair of McCain's campaign, while Fiorina is victory chairman for the Republican National Committee. Both have been mentioned as potential Cabinet secretaries in a McCain administration, and their names appeared on lists of potential running mates before Palin was selected.
For Whitman (pictured above getting close to McCain), the 10-minute speech could help launch a political career. She told the San Jose Mercury News that she'll talk about McCain's plan to cut government spending and lower taxes. She'll also discuss what she called "our generation's moon shot" -- ending the nation's dependency on foreign oil. Her decade leading EBay has made her popular at the convention among users of the auction site, she said.
"They recognize me, and come up and say 'I'm an EBay seller,' or tell me 'I bought my car on EBay,' '' Whitman said.
But leaping into politics ...
Read on »
|
@latimes Tech, always on...
TECHNOLOGY REVIEWS
Depending on the model, your device features either a hard drive or flash drive that allows you to read and write files to it just like an external drive.
|
RSS: Subscribe to this Blog
The call for urgent improvements in the ...
Nice image used for this article - from ...
great post, I had exactly the same quest...