eBay just can't seem to win these days. Seems like the luster of the once-omnipotent online marketplace is fizzling away like an unsold antique in an auction. But it's all just skin deep.

First, after years of being the Wall Street darling for being the preeminent dot-com survivor, the stock gets hammered not too long ago for not giving stellar results as based on everyone’s stratospheric expectations.

Then it buys into a sexy startup (that would be Skype) and everyone disses it for losing its focus and possibly just overreacting to the new Microsoft called Google. And now profits are up, but the stock is dragged down anyway, and recently sank 5.7% in a single bound.

eBay reported a 40% uptick in income for the third quarter, earning $255 million (18 cents per share) compared to $182.3 million (13 cents per share) from a year ago, but at the same time also warned of diminished profit for the fourth quarter due to payments for recent acquisitions.

The company said it expects revenues of $1.25 bilion to $1.29 billion, with earnings expected to be at 21 cents per share, reflecting the influence of its recent acquisition of Internet telephony powerhouse Skype as well as a $370 million purchase of an online payment business from Verisign.

That’s a good boost to revenues, but also ate away fatter margins, where such acquisitions cost eBay what would have been a $280 million quarter (20 cents per share) which would have matched analysts’ projections.

Still, eBay’s been here before. It’s like the former AOL before it merged with TimeWarner, the cockroach who everyone leaves for dead, but somehow manages to come back stronger.

In eBay’s case, however, it has a number of really good resources in its utility belt, the most important of which is its loyal following and ownership of the premier online marketplace gives it the resilience not afforded other companies.

And even with the initial short-term digestive pains, its current roll of acquisitions should only make it stronger.

Attached Thumbnails