• Marketwatch, Thursday, May 4, 2006 12:46 PM

EBay's analyst day is today, a few weeks after the retailing giant disappointed Wall Street with its first quarter earnings. In fact, for more than a year eBay's been a disappointing investment, with its shares down 41 percent from $57.38 at the start of 2005. Ouch. So, what about Skype? How can the voice over Internet Protocol company kick-start eBay's flagging share price? Does VoIP make it any easier or more efficient to buy/ bid on items? Also, what about eBay Express, its new online retail store? How is it going to set itself apart from Amazon.com? And finally, what about that proposed advertising partnership with Yahoo? Sounds like a good idea to me, especially as Google, its "ally," moves into retail and classifieds with Google Base. One thing is sure, eBay's gross merchandise value is flat, and it needs to do something to boost revenues and show renewed growth. While Skype seems to be progressing nicely, Marketwatch writer Bambi Francisco notes that it's still unclear how it integrates with eBay's core business. A Yahoo partnership might be smart, since Yahoo could use the added revenue in the wake of the flurry of announcements by Google and Microsoft and all the talk about the pending war between the two.

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