While Whitman pledged faster growth at the company’s annual financial analyst conference in San Jose, California, she did not increase the 2006 revenue forecast, which remains at $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion, or approximately 31% annual growth rate.
She also brushed off suggestions that Google’s new services, Google Base, posed a threat to Ebay’s e-commerce and online payment businesses.
Each of our brands is the global leader in its space and well positioned to pursue new opportunities and accelerate growth, commented Whitman. Together, they’re working to turbo charge one another. Our multi-brand strategy is opening up entirely new vistas of opportunity for the company.
However, Whitman admitted that it could take two to three years to see benefits from synergizing the three brands.
Ebay’s first-quarter international revenue growth slowed to 31% in 2006, compared to 43% in 2005. Ebay’s European business, which constitutes four-fifths of all international revenue, slid from 42% to 31%. Ebay is also facing difficulties in China, where Yahoo’s partner Alibaba.com has 70% of the business to business auction market.
