EBay revenue misses as weak U.S. sporting season hits StubHub

EBay missed analysts’ estimates for second-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as its online ticket marketplace StubHub had a disappointing quarter, leading the e-commerce website to forecast underwhelming third-quarter results.

The company’s shares were down about 5 per cent at $36 after the bell.

EBay blamed fewer games in major US sporting events for lower ticket sales at StubHub. Even though StubHub revenue rose 4 per cent to $246 million, it was its slowest growth since the second quarter of 2017.

“It was a historically bad MLB start of the season and it was a 4-game NBA series, it was a 5-game Final Series, it was a 5-game hockey series. There were just a lot of things that broke the wrong way on the landscape.,” eBay Chief Executive Officer Devin Wenig said on a post-earnings call.

Wenig added that he did not expect the landscape for ticket sales to get any better in the second half.

CFO Scott Schenkel also said he expects the stronger dollar — up 4 per cent since the company’s prior forecast — to hit revenue by $150 million for the full year.

EBay lowered its full-year revenue forecast to between $10.75 billion and $10.85 billion, from $10.9 billion to $11.1 billion earlier. Analysts were expecting revenue of $10.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Third-quarter revenue is also expected to be between $2.64 billion and $2.69 billion, missing Wall Street estimates of $2.73 billion.

EBay has been splurging on advertising brands available on its platform and on developing a more user-friendly format to better compete with the likes of Amazon.com, but saw its efforts overshadowed by weak StubHub growth.

The online retailer is banking on initiatives like grouped listings, a way for buyers to find the items they are searching for faster, and a simplified payment process to help lure more online shoppers.

The San Jose, California-based company had 175 million active buyers globally in the second quarter, compared to 171 million active buyers in the first quarter.

The company’s gross merchandise volume, the value of goods sold on its websites, rose 10.4 per cent to $23.63 billion.

Excluding items, the company earned 53 cents per share in the second quarter ended June 30. Revenue rose about 9 per cent to $2.64 billion.

Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 51 cents per share on revenue of $2.66 billion.