eBay earnings up significantly in Q1

eBay announced Wednesday its second straight $2 billion quarter and said its first-quarter revenue was up 24 percent from a year ago.

The auction giant said that it brought in Q1 revenue of $2.19 billion, up 24 percent from the $1.77 billion it brought in during the same period a year earlier. In addition, the company's Q1 profit of $460 million, or 34 cents a share, was up 22 percent from its Q1 2007 earnings of $377 million, or 27 cents.

In a release, eBay attributed its strong quarter to several factors, including global business classifieds, growth at its Skype and PayPal units, and "net transaction revenues" from Marketplaces.

Among the milestones eBay trumpeted for the quarter were 100 billion total Skype-to-Skype minutes, 3 million total vehicles sold on eBay motors, and the repurchase of 37 million shares of eBay common stock for about $1 billion.

It's also somewhat ironic that eBay it touting its success with Skype when for some time the common wisdom has been that its much-hyped acquisition of the VoIP company had been viewed as a failure.

Also during the quarter, John Donahoe assumed the CEO position, succeeding longtime leader Meg Whitman.