eBay extends stock repurchase programme by $5 billion

Continuing a programme initiated in 2012, online auctioneer eBay has said it will repurchase shares worth an additional $5 billion.

The US-based company, which started a stock repurchase worth $2 billion in June 2012, bought about  $1.3 billion of shares.

"The stock repurchase programme is intended to offset the impact of dilution from our equity compensation programmes," the firm said last week.

As of December 31, the company had about $640 million pending for repurchases of its common stock under the 2012 programme, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last month, the company's board of directors authorised an additional $5 billion stock repurchase programme.

The new stock repurchase programme, together with $640 million remaining, brings the total repurchase authorisation as of January to $5.6 billion, eBay said in the filing.

EBay also expects to make opportunistic repurchases of its common stock to reduce the outstanding share count.

"Any share repurchases under our stock repurchase programmes may be made through open market transactions, block trades, privately negotiated transactions or other means at times and in such amounts as management deems appropriate and may be funded from our working capital or other financing alternatives," it added.

The global commerce platform and payments firm said its fourth quarter revenue rose 13 per cent to $4.5 billion from a year earlier. Net income in the quarter stood at $850 million, driven primarily by strong top-line growth.

The total company-enabled commerce volume increased 22% in the fourth quarter to $61 billion.

Both Marketplaces and PayPal achieved record mobile results in 2013, each exceeding $20 billion.

Mobile users represented 40%of eBay's 36 million new users and accounts in 2013, contributing $35 billion to commerce volumes.