Ebay Inc

Online auctioneer EBay Inc. said Tuesday that it was ready to begin auctioning advertising airtime on 2,300 participating U.S. radio stations, expanding on an existing plan to sell cable television ads. The move, which puts EBay into competition with Web search leader Google Inc.'s recent expansion into radio advertising, involves EBay partnering with Encino-based Bid4Spots Inc. to power what it calls the EBay Media Marketplace for Radio. The new U.S.

EBay Inc., the world's largest online auctioneer, added Spanish, French and Chinese websites for its PayPal payment services unit to help boost its overseas sales and extend its lead over Google Inc.'s rival Checkout service. PayPal added service to 87 countries, including Cambodia, Greenland and Kazakhstan, San Jose-based EBay said in a statement. PayPal now serves 190 countries. Google, which started Checkout last year, said last month that it would not charge merchants any fees this year.

EBay Inc.'s profit and sales surged in the first quarter, tempering concerns that the online auction giant was losing momentum. Strength in EBay's PayPal online payment business, success in controlling costs, a weak U.S. dollar and a lower tax rate helped push earnings up 52% from a year earlier to $377.2 million, or 27 cents a share. Revenue climbed 27% to $1.77 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.72 billion.

Consider this the ultimate spring cleaning: Lisa Perry, a 45-year-old lawyer and self-described pack rat, is selling nearly all of her belongings -- minus her dog, cat, photo albums and a stack of underwear -- on EBay. The auction -- entitled "Everything Perry Owns!!" -- began Tuesday and is set to end Sunday morning. "I am moving, changing my life, and want to purge all things from the past," Perry wrote in her listing of 41 items that were part of the package, along with "many more things ...

A group of national cable television networks on Thursday abruptly pulled out of an experimental program that sought to use EBay Inc.'s auction expertise and technology to buy and sell TV time. Several big ad agencies and major advertisers including Home Depot Inc., Toyota Motor Corp. and Intel Corp. hired EBay last summer to create an "online media marketplace" for television ads. The companies had hoped to introduce an efficient, and perhaps lower-cost, tool for selling commercial time.

An intern with the National Archives stole about 165 Civil War documents -- including the War Department's announcement of President Lincoln's death -- and sold most of them on EBay, prosecutors charged Thursday. Denning McTague, who runs a website that sells rare books, worked at a National Archives and Records Administration site in Philadelphia last summer, prosecutors said.

Go (YOUR SCHOOL)! You stink, (YOUR SCHOOL'S OPPONENT)! In the latest evidence March Madness is more than a promotional slogan, two college basketball fans are selling their rooting services on EBay. They have tickets to this week's first-round NCAA tournament games in Columbus, Ohio -- among them Long Beach State versus Tennessee on Friday -- and are offering their allegiances to the school of the highest bidder.

When a disappointed David Beckham stalked out of the stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, after England's loss to Portugal during last summer's soccer World Cup, he was wearing a scowl. Whether he was also wearing his World Cup credential, normally found draped around the necks of players, coaches, referees, journalists and tournament officials, is up for debate.

Need a Blood Bladed Dagger? Or an Axe of the Stoic? Don't look on EBay. Citing "complex legal issues," EBay Inc. has decided to yank auctions of virtual items garnered from popular online games such as "EverQuest" and "World of Warcraft." "We can't say definitely if it's legal or illegal," EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said. "It's complex. And when something is complex like this, we have a history of disallowing the items." For years, players of online games have traded unreal goods for real money.

EBay Inc. found an easy way to bump fourth-quarter profit: It charged some sellers more to hawk their holiday products. The San Jose-based Internet giant said Wednesday that net income jumped 24% as it started to benefit from its July decision to jack up some listing fees. It also saw strong demand for gift items and its PayPal payment service.