EBay's earnings beat estimates

SAN JOSE, Calif. — EBay Inc.'s fourth-quarter earnings inched past Wall Street estimates on Wednesday as the online auction giant reported strong holiday sales and boosted its already optimistic outlook for 2004.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, eBay earned $142.5 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with $87 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same period of 2002.

Excluding special items, eBay earned a record $157 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with $87.6 million, or 14 cents per share, in the last quarter of 2002.

Analysts expected eBay to earn 22 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

Fourth-quarter revenue was $648.4 million, up 57 percent from $413.9 million in the same period of 2002.

Chief financial officer Rajiv Dutta credited the fourth-quarter surge to strong holiday sales and the growing popularity of eBay's fixed-price merchandise and one-day auctions. EBay was the top e-commerce site in December, he said.

He praised thousands of eBay sellers for making eBay a rare exception to the dot-com collapse that devastated the stock prices of other e-commerce companies.

"EBay is really an army of entrepreneurs — an adaptive marketplace in good times and bad," Dutta said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "Our entrepreneurs constantly look for what works, what succeeds. They're always one step ahead of us, and that's the magic of eBay."