Instant view: eBay beats on strong PayPal, marketplaces

Commentary:

COLIN GILLIS, ANALYST BGC PARTNERS

Paypal is better than expected. It's a tremendous asset. They added in a million new accounts each month ... it has extended itself off of the platform. Their non e-Bay business is growing 40 percent year-over-year.

The marketplace (business) came in a bit lower than we expected and what we need to see is how much of this is macro, and how much this is eBay-specific.

FRED MORAN, ANALYST, BENCHMARK:

The quarter looks fairly solid with a 15 percent revenue growth rate excluding impact of the Skype sale, which reflects both the recovery in the economy and the company's effort to move toward fixed price offerings.

The EPS of 40 cents was a penny ahead of consensus and therefore shows that incremental revenue flowed through nicely.

The outlook for the rest of the year reflects ongoing recovery in the core eBay marketplace businesses as well as ongoing growth at Paypal, but caution that the currency impact -- related to the fact that roughly half of their revenues come from overseas -- will hinder growth slightly in the second half of the year.

Overall, we view eBay's earnings report as good indication that the company is making progress toward revitalizing its business at a time when consumer demand remains uncertain.

The fact that eBay's top line has rebounded to a midteens revenue growth rate is representative of the recovery being seen in e-commerce, and clearly reflects well on Amazon showing powerful growth in its report tomorrow.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco and Carolina Madrid in Los Angeles)