eBay reports strong Q1 revenue of $4.45B, plans to spin off PayPal in Q3

Online marketplace eBay announced its first quarter earnings today. The company earned revenue of $4.45 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $0.77.

Analysts expected earnings per share of $0.70 on revenue of $4.42 billion.

The company’s PayPal division grew revenues 14 percent year-over-year to $2.1 billion, while eBay’s marketplace business declined four percent year-over-year to $2.07 billion. Its enterprise unit increased revenues to $288 million this quarter, a seven percent increase from the same time last year.

Today, eBay announced that it will be splitting off PayPal in the third quarter of this year. The company had announced its decision to spin off PayPal in September of last year. Earlier this spring, eBay outlined in an SEC filing exactly how it plans to continue the eBay/PayPal partnership while making room for PayPal to grow relationships with other marketplaces.

In the meantime, eBay cut 2,400 jobs this quarter across all sections of the company. The job cuts were aimed at streamlining the overall company ahead of the split. eBay is also considering selling off its enterprise unit.

In addition to cleaning house, eBay is also trying to expand the reach of its market place. This quarter the company rolled out a joint project with Sotheby’s for live online art auctions. Sure, this isn’t a huge source of income for the marketplace, but it indicates that eBay may be looking to more luxury markets to grow its marketplace revenues.

Meanwhile, PayPal had a very active first quarter with two major acquisitions. In early March, PayPal announced it had acquired Israeli cyber security firm CyActive for an undisclosed amount (the deal was rumored to be worth $60 million). Under PayPal’s wing the company will act as a hub for fraud detection and cyber security research alongside another PayPal acquisition, Fraud Sciences.

PayPal also picked up Paydiant, a company that helps retailers create mobile commerce apps and develop loyalty strategies. The acquisition is a bid to grow PayPal’s mobile wallet. Along with its mobile wallet, PayPal is building out its mobile payments technology PayPal Here. The company is working on a cellphone dongle that will allow merchants using PayPal to accept chip-and-pin credit cards.

For next quarter, eBay says that it expects revenues between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion with non-GAAP earnings in the range of $0.71 – $0.73. The GAAP earnings, expected to be between $0.44 – $0.49 per share, will reflect the $130-$150 million in costs that eBay expects to incur from its split with PayPal.

In after-hours trading eBay stock is up five percent as of this writing.