eBay earnings: Profit surges 50%, beating estimates

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced a 50% surge in second quarter earnings (pdf document). This growth was mostly attributed to PayPal, and to strong sales on online auctions on eBay's online payments business. Listings, however, slowed down.

For the quarter ended June 30, eBay reported earnings of $375.8 million, or 27 cents per share, compared to earnings of $250 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding charges, the company posted earnings of $471 million, or 34 cents a share, beating the 32 cents per share expected by analysts.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.83 billion, up 30% from $1.4 billion for the same period last year, again beating analyst estimates polled by Thomson Financials of $1.78 billion.

Marketplaces net revenues totaled a record $1.29 billion, a growth rate of 26% over the $1.03 billion reported in Q2-06. But, listings were 559 million in Q2-07, 6% lower than the 596 million listings posted in Q2-06. PayPal, on the other hand, had net revenues that totaled a record $454 million in Q2-07, a growth rate of 34% over the $339 million reported in Q2-06. Skype net revenues totaled a record $90 million in Q2-07, a growth rate of 103% over the $44 million reported in Q2-06.

eBay shares are up 1.7% in after-hours trading following the announcement.
I'll be liveblogging the earnings call starting at 5 p.m. EDT.