| Net auctioneer's profit jumps
EBay Inc., the world's largest online auction company, says its first-quarter profit soared 52 per cent after the company raised fees on items for sale and held more auctions outside the United States. Net income climbed to $377.2 million (U.S.), or 27 cents a share, from $248.3 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier, eBay said yesterday. Excluding some expenses, eBay earned 33 cents, three cents more than analysts estimated. Revenue increased 27 per cent to $1.77 billion as a weaker U.S. dollar and demand in western Europe boosted results internationally. Last year, eBay chief executive officer Meg Whitman more than doubled fees for merchants selling goods at fixed prices. A higher percentage of listings are now leading to sales. "They're still the gorilla," said Rachel Wakefield, portfolio manager for Coldstream Capital Management in Portland, Ore.
London midday: Bids fail to excite buyers
LONDON (SHARECAST) - Losses at Barclays and AstraZeneca, who both launched multi-billion pound takeovers today, are offsetting oil sector strength and bid interest elsewhere, leaving London little changed at lunchtime. Barclays has launched an agreed all share offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro worth over 67bn, but the banks shares fell as analysts expressed doubts about the tie up and said the deal was fully priced. They reckon Royal Bank of Scotland, which has been circling ABN together with consortium members Fortis and Santander, is likely to trump todays deal. Barclays shareholders will own about 52% of the enlarged company. Annual pretax synergy benefits of about 3.5bn by 2010 are forecast with 23,600 jobs to go. Peers HSBC and Lloyds TSB also fell. AstraZeneca, meanwhile, has agreed to buy US biotech MedImmune for $15.2bn.
Horry takes bids on fire rescue study
Horry County Council agreed Tuesday to look into the cost of an efficiency study of its fire rescue services, including management of volunteers and how stations use money. National consultants will bid on the price of the efficiency study, which is expected to cost more than $100,000 and give the county pointers on how to improve its fire department. A recent barrage of complaints from County Council and fire department workers over the treatment of volunteers triggered the consideration of an efficiency study. Some on County Council including the study's sponsor, Kevin Hardee, believe it could help fire rescue save money in its $12 million budget. Others said it could be a waste if the investigation finds the department is already functioning smoothly.
AM, Thur 19th April - Investment vultures of the buy-to-let market
You are bidding on another house, only to be outbid again. The housing market is hard. Not only does being outbid mean that you need to pay another months rent, it also means that housing prices will increase about 100 pounds a day until you bid again. .
Speed up wireless spectrum auction: Peladeau
OTTAWA–The federal government should speed up the auction of frequencies for a new generation of wireless devices, the head of Quebecor Inc. said yesterday, arguing that a slow pace is putting Canada behind other countries. "We believe that the spectrum auction for new frequencies should happen more quickly than what the Industry department is calling for, which is January of 2008," Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor's chief executive, said in a release. "Canada has already fallen too far behind. If we truly want to support Canadian culture and see it flourish, we have to equip ourselves very rapidly with the appropriate vehicles." Quebecor, through its media division, controls the country's third-largest cable company – Vidéotron – which has expanded aggressively into the phone business using land-based Internet protocol technology.
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