• Marketwatch, Thursday, April 19, 2007 11 AM

EBay had a markedly different day on Wall Street from its Web partner (and rival) Yahoo, delivering better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Thanks to sharp growth from its Skype and PayPal units, and a higher average price of selling goods on its auction site, first-quarter profit surged 52 percent. The San Jose, Calif. firm reported net income of $377.2 million, up from $248.3 million a year earlier, sending shares up 5 percent in after hours trading. Overall sales were $1.78 billion.

Growth was fueled by a 31 percent rise in revenue from PayPal, while Skype, eBay's voice over Internet Protocol company, more than doubled its revenue to $79 million. But that's still small potatoes when you consider the retail giant paid a whopping $2.6 billion to acquire the Internet telephony company.

Nevertheless, Skype, whose growth had been flat, saw an 11 percent increase in calls and a 135 percent increase in fees its users pay to call landline phones or cell phones. PayPal, meanwhile, continues to dominate the online payment space, contributing $439 million in sales, or about a quarter of ebay's total.

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