EBay warns on revenue, shares fall

By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc cut its full-year revenue forecast as its online auctions business slows down, sending its shares down 6.3 percent.

The stock decline in after-hours trade extended a 14 percent drop in the regular session on Wednesday, fueled by investor fears that the company would be hit hard by a global recession.

"It's really the guidance I think is disappointing," said Jeffrey Lindsay of Sanford C. Bernstein.

Lindsay said eBay's forecast for the fourth quarter, its strongest of the year, sent a bad signal to investors over how it will perform in 2009.

EBay reported a third-quarter net profit of $492 million, or 38 cents per share, from a year-earlier loss of $936 million, or 69 cents per share, when it took a $1.4 billion write-down for its Web telephone service Skype.

Total revenue rose 12 percent to $2.12 billion.

On an adjusted basis, earnings were 46 cents per share. That was above the average Wall Street estimate of 41 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

EBay also said the total value of all goods sold on its site, a metric known as gross merchandise volume, fell by 1 percent from a year ago -- the first time it has ventured into negative territory.