eBay Q2 revenues up 14 percent, GMV down 7 percent

For the second quarter, eBay Inc., revenue was 2.7 billion dollars, up 14 percent on an as-reported basis and up 11 percent on a foreign exchange (FX) neutral basis. The company’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) was 22.1 billion dollars, down 7 percent on an as-reported basis and down 11 percent on an FX-Neutral basis.

The company reported GAAP net income from continuing operations of 294 million dollars or 43 cents per diluted share, while non-GAAP net income from continuing operations of 675 million dollars or 99 cents per diluted share.

“Today I am pleased to announce another strong quarter. In Q2, on an apples-to-apples basis, all key business metrics met or exceeded expectations and revenue growth was driven by the acceleration in our payments migration and growth in advertising,” said Jamie Iannone, chief executive officer at eBay.

Highlights of eBay’s second quarter

The company’s annual active buyers declined by 2 percent, for a total of 159 million global active buyers, while annual active sellers grew by 5 percent, for a total of 19 million global active sellers.

During the quarter under review, eBay announced it has completed the transfer of its Classifieds business to Adevinta in exchange for 2.5 billion dollars in cash and a 44 percent equity stake in Adevinta, equivalent to approximately 540 million shares. With the transfer complete, the company updated its capital allocation plans for 2021 by increasing its estimated share buyback from 2 billion dollars to 5 billion dollars.

In July, eBay entered into an agreement with Permira to sell approximately 135 million shares of its stake in Adevinta for more than 2.4 billion dollars of estimated total consideration. This sale reduces eBay’s ownership in Adevinta to 33 percent.

The company announced it has reached an agreement with Emart for the purchase of eBay’s business in Korea. Pursuant to the transaction, eBay will sell an 80.01percent stake in its Korean businesses for 3.44 trillion KRW (or approximately 3 billion dollars) of gross cash proceeds.

The company announced the appointment of Steve Priest as chief financial officer and Stefanie Jay as chief business and strategy officer during the quarter under review.

eBay’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of 18 cents per share of the company’s common stock payable on September 17, 2021 to stockholders of record as of September 1, 2021.