Ebay Inc

san francisco -- EBay Inc. said Monday that the co-founder and chief executive of its Skype division was stepping down and that the parent company would take $1.43 billion in charges for the Internet phone service division. Of the charges to be taken in the current quarter, $900 million would be a write-down in the value of Skype, EBay said. That charge, for what accountants call impairment, essentially acknowledges that San Jose-based EBay drastically overvalued the $2.

EBay Inc., the world's largest Internet auctioneer, was sued over allegations that customers didn't receive the full amount of time allotted to sell products. Auctions may face delays of as long as several hours once they have been submitted even though consumers are paying fees for a set period of time, Houston-based law firm Williams Kherkher Hart Boundas said in a statement.

Toys and other children's products recalled because of safety concerns are often resold through online auction sites, putting children at risk, according to a recent study. EBay Inc.'s website prohibits the sale of recalled products, but enforcement efforts don't seem to be succeeding, said Keri Brown Kirschman, the study's lead author and an assistant psychology professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

The subway cars in New York are plastered with ads featuring cartoonish character faces with absolutely no hint about the advertisement's purpose except for a come-on with the word Windorphins. So what are Windorphins? A video game? A kiddie show? A sugary snack? A new drug to make you feel like your endorphins are kicking in? None of the above. Windorphins is a new marketing gimmick for EBay, with ads so inscrutable as to be ridiculous.

EBay Inc. reported Wednesday that second-quarter profit surged 50%, easily beating Wall Street expectations thanks to strong sales on online auctions, the automobile classified section and e-commerce sites such as Shopping.com. But analysts remained concerned about the declining number of items for sale on the site. EBay shares fell 55 cents in extended trading after results were released. Its shares closed down 20 cents at $34.05 in regular trading. San Jose-based EBay earned $375.

A Northern California town put up for auction twice on EBay is for sale again, but by more traditional means. A real estate agent handling the sale confirmed Friday that the tiny Humboldt County town of Bridgeville, population about 30, is on the market for $1.3 million. The picturesque but dilapidated village on the Van Duzen River gained international fame five years ago when its 83 acres were put on the cyber-auction block.

Online auction leader EBay Inc. said Friday that it planned to resume advertising through Google Inc. but would increase its reliance on other services. EBay is one of the biggest buyers of keyword ads on Google's leading pay-per-click advertising system, AdWords, using them to promote its online auctions. It canceled all Google ads this month in protest of the Web search company's bid to woo EBay customers to a rival payment system.

When Pierre Omidyar founded EBay 12 years ago, he wanted to build the world's most efficient marketplace. At the very least, he launched the most comprehensive one. Today San Jose-based EBay Inc. is a conglomeration of websites where people sell everything from car parts to carp arts. (What den couldn't use a watercolor of a fish?) But with $60 billion worth of goods changing hands on EBay's worldwide sites this year, all that stuff has a downside: It can be a drag to pick something to buy.

EBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, said it would ban sales of elephant-ivory products between residents of different countries to comply with government regulations. EBay will allow listings of ivory products only in the seller's own country and will remove those that offer international shipping, the San Jose company said. Wildlife trade rules differ between countries because of the protected status of some elephant species, EBay said.

EBay Inc. didn't take kindly to Google Inc. crashing its conference. The online auction house pulled its ads from Google's U.S. search engine this week because it was mad about Google's encroaching on its turf -- both literally and figuratively. EBay is one of Google's biggest advertisers. The search engine funnels millions of Web surfers to the auction site.