But it should also be considered that degrading the marketplace competitiveness for those short term gains with an impending crash is not something the shareholders would either be happy with.
Probably not but I doubt eBay is going to totally crash. Their asset holdings are substantial enough to cover their short, and in most cases, long term debt.
Nor do their stock reports reflect that they're maximizing profits. They're only becoming less competitive against the other marketplaces.
Their quarterly and yearly reporting reflects changes in the operating environment more than what eBay is doing internally. While the last 3 quarterly reports have not been stellar eBay has still paid stock dividends. If you look a a number of large corporations you will find a lot of them have $0 net profit for a year and therefore pay no federal or state taxes, at least directly. They have however grown considerably and the value of their held assets is what determines the stocks desirability. Amazon is a prime example. Without going back through every report I don't believe they have ever reported a net income but the growth and expansion is self evident.
Don't you think stock holders would be alarmed if they were aware of what was going on? If they even understood what they were actually doing with their ads as they promise growth, and knew the truth behind eBay's smoke and mirrors in their press releases? If they saw that the site was literally pay to play and the average prices compared to the competitors went up?
Serious shareholders, especially the major ones, know more than you think about what is going on it just takes some digging through the reports to get the clear picture.
They instead focus on some "key categories" and show some statistics for the specific category, rather than showing that the site as a whole has had substantial drops in GMV.
EBay like any publically traded company has to follow specific SEC guidance on their reporting although in some cases the SEC allows some pretty broad leeway. What would probably be a real shock to the shareholders would be what eBay's NMV is as opposed to it's GMV. I.E. the GMV - (returns, refunds, scams, lost items, etc. but that is one figure you will probably never see.
And here's the kicker: Without the ridiculous promotion fees (and other fees, such as how they price gouge people on USPS fees with the illusion that they're cheaper while tricking people who don't realize you pay FVF on that price bringing them higher than 3rd parties), people WOULD NOT be able to go to B&M stores and get the same items for cheaper.
Partially agree but it is more a factor of some other changes such as the addition of state sales tax as a result of the Wayfair vs. South Dakota Supreme Court decision. The new 1099 reporting requirements which impacted those sellers who had not been reporting their eBay sales as income, the constantly increasing shipping costs and yes the promoted listings all of which sellers have to factor into their pricing. I sell across multiple platforms and adjust my prices, usually downward, based on the costs associated with those platforms.
EBay gave up their advantage, and the reason that people were coming to the site ahead of others, in order for those short term gains. And if stock holders actually knew this, they would likely not be holding on to their stocks, as the long term outlook is poor.
Agree and while eBay still holds an advantage in the number of active buyers that is slowly diminishing along with the active sellers. The stock market is more about the impact of externalities to a company than it is the internalities although both play a factor. In case you hadn't noticed the DJIA has dropped just over 16% in the last year, 9% in the last month. The Dow closed today at about the same average that it was at in January of 2020 but is still ahead of where it tanked in March of 2020 when it closed below 20,000.
