eBay goes way beyond online auctions

Article Excerpt

EBAY INC. $30 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $39.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates the world’s largest online auction website, with over 99 million users in 39 countries. The company charges users fees to list and sell their goods through its websites. The company also operates several other websites, including StubHub (live event ticket sales), Shopping.com (comparison shopping) and Rent.com (apartment and house rentals). In all, these websites account for 55% of eBay’s overall revenue. The company gets a further 35% of its revenue by processing online financial transactions, mostly through its PayPal subsidiary. Solid foothold in the business market The remaining 10% of its revenue comes from GSI Commerce Inc., which eBay bought for $2.4 billion in June 2011. GSI, which has over 500 business clients, sells services that help its customers process orders from their websites and increase their online sales. eBay’s revenue rose 53.4%, from…