eBay Q4 income jumps with help from Skype unit, Paypal

San Jose, Calif. eBay reported that its fourth-quarter earnings rose as its PayPal payments business grew and holiday shoppers gravitated to its online auctions and "Buy It Now" offerings.

eBay reported a net income of $1.4 billion, compared with $367 million in the same quarter in 2008. Revenue for the quarter was $2.37 billion, up 16% from $2.04 billion in the year-earlier period.

The company also logged a large gain from the November sale of its Skype telecommunications business. Skype was recently sold for $1.9 billion and eBay is now a minority stockholder in Skype, with a 30% share.

In eBay's biggest segment -- which includes eBay.com, Shopping.com and other e-commerce sites -- revenue rose 15% to $1.46 billion, helped by more sales of fixed-price items and an increase in international sales.

Meanwhile, the number of active registered eBay users rose 3% from the year-ago period to 90.1 million.

Its gross merchandise volume, excluding vehicles, also rose, gaining 24 % to $14.2 billion.

For the full year, eBay earned $2.4 billion on $8.7 billion in revenue.