THE DUBLIN-BASED subsidiary of online auction company eBay made a pretax profit of €586,000 last year, down 18 per cent on the previous year, according to documents just filed at the Companies Office.
Accounts for eBay Europe Services, which is one of the two main eBay companies based in Ireland, show that turnover increased slightly to €25.4 million in 2009, resulting in an operating profit of €485,000, more than double that of 2008. However, a lower amount of investment income during the year meant the pretax profit fell short of its 2008 level. Net profit for the financial year arrived at €320,000, down 14 per cent.
Staff costs fell almost 8 per cent in 2009 due to both a lower wage bill and a lower level of share-based payments. Approximately 340 people were employed by the company last year, a similar number to the 2008 figure. A further 987 people were employed last year by a separate eBay company based in Dublin, PayPal Europe Services. PayPal’s Irish operation earlier this year reported turnover of €73.6 million for 2009.
It had a pretax profit of €4.6 million and an operating profit of €2.4 million.
The online auction company, one of the original and most successful “Web 2.0” enterprises, set up its Irish operation in 2005 in Blanchardstown in Dublin.
In total, the group now employs more than 1,600 people at its Irish site, having created further jobs during 2009 and another 150 positions since the end of its last financial year. The immediate parent company of eBay Europe Services is the Swiss-based eBay International, while the ultimate parent, eBay Inc, is based in San José, California. No dividend was paid to the parent companies in 2009. The directors of the Irish subsidiary are listed as Dermot Lawton, Kenneth Sweeney, Nicholas Staheyeff and Andrew Pease.
