Ebay summary.

Incoming week we have earnings call Q1 scheduled for eBay (EBAY). As I posted recently (Google acquires Skype) share price was at 15 times cash flow which showed good buying opportunity. Stock price is up by 20% in last 3 weeks. But how about Q1?

Ebay has changed fee strategy, decrease insertion fees for sellers and increased fee from each sale. Based on 3rd party research this change helped sellers to increase sales by 10-20%.

GMV (Gross merchandise volume) is key indicator for Ebay. It's a percentage growth (year on year) for total value of sold goods in USD. Last GMV was just 12% compared to 20% one year ago. All fee changes could show better than expected GMV which is only around 10%.

The big pain of previous quarters, Skype, also is doing better. Last quarter with 76% revenue increase. Skype accounts 5% of total Ebay revenue.

PayPal has last quarter revenue growth by 35%. And the unit accounts more than 25% of total Ebay revenue.

Changes in fee model altogether with weak USD could drive eBay Q1 results upside.

Google acquires Skype.

This is the rumour coming to the market today. Actually this would be win win situation for both companies. Ebay (EBAY) struggled with huge writedown due to Skype. This service really doesn't fit to eBay portfolio. The idea of easy communication between sellers and buyers during auctions seemed a bit far-fetched.

On the other side Google (GOOG) has wide experience with all social networking applications and communication services. Skype could be another useful tool with easy integration to current Google services.

Ebay bought Skype in for $4.1 bln and speculation sell price varies $4-6 bln.
2 weeks ago share price was at 15 times cash flow which was extremely cheap. Recently Ebay performs very well and it is among the best in Nasdaq 100. Any other speculations or rumours could fuelled price in future.

Technical support for Google (GOOG) and Ebay (EBAY).

At previous post I set technical support for GOOG at $625. Google share prices rebounded this week to $660. Also the highest target price upgrade ($900) done by Credit Suisse helped shares to lift.

Another big tech name in my long term portfolio Ebay is setting up for rebound. From last Q3 release shares went all the way down from $42 to $31 today. Significant 25% drop in only 35 days. The results were better than expected but one time Skype write down triggered all this bad. I am looking at MACD bullish crossover. But before I'd do enter position I am watching closely at broad market indices trading close to support levels.

Yesterday winner EBay. How about Google today...?

Yesterday EBay reported profit 41 cents per share (excl. Skype charge). Analyst expectations were at 33 cents. Revenue grew 30%. Today my second big tech holding is reporting. Gainer of last days Google.

EBAY, MU, DIVX are boosting my portfolio

Today's leaders in my current holdings are EBAY with +2.8%, MU +2.8% and DIVX +1.8%. From european trading I collected also some money as I had short position in futures for czech index PX50. PX50 lost more than 1% today.

Ebay has resistance at $35

If eBay stocks cross over $35 it can reach far behind $40. Current price is slightly above 50MA ($33) and 200MA ($31.7).

eBay(Skype) & Wal-Mart partnership

Skype announces that it is teaming up with Wal-Mart (WMT) to address the growing popularity and demand for Internet communications among U.S. consumers. This partnership gives shoppers immediate hands-on access to headsets, webcams and handsets designed to work with Skype, as well as the first pre-paid cards for Skype available in the U.S.

EBAY's stake in GittiGidiyor.com

Today's announcement that EBAY acquired a minority stake in GittiGidiyor.com pushing shares higher. As EBAY is heavily weighed in my current holdings it is leading today's profit very well.