News EBay profits jump, shares slump

From the Beeb:

Online auction site eBay has reported an almost 70% increase in profits but disappointed analysts with a conservative forecast for next year's sales.

The dot.com success story made $103.3m (£61.5m) over the past three months compared to $61m made in the same period a year earlier.

The rise in profits met analyst forecasts, but the online firm's results have traditionally far outstripped expectations.

Several research firms have recently cautioned that eBay's rapid growth cannot continue apace.

And the firm backed up this theory when it predicted sales growth of 38% during 2004, a figure well below its boom period of expansion.

"EBay continues to be a very dynamic business that has some challenges over the near and medium term," said Derek Brown, an analyst at Pacific Growth Equities.

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