eBay's Q2 report - what does it all mean?

Yesterday, I mentioned a few things to to watch for in the Q2 report. Today, I'll examine how they fared.

• Core listings growth - this has been one of major concerns of eBay investors - and the shift towards SIF (store inventory format) - as expected, eBay immediately tackled this one. Meg acknowledged the "slightly slower growth rates in our core (auction) business" and announced an increase in fee for the store format, hoping to drive listings back to the auction format. Most analysts agree and I do to, that the move is positive as not only will it drive listings back towards core, but it will also increase revenue from store listings.
• PayPal vs. Google (GOOG) Checkout - PayPal growth has been a strong 39% to $339 million. Meg didn't mention anything about Checkout until question period. There will be no reduction in fees, she said but she believes PayPal can beat the competition with what it offers both sellers (control) and buyers (features).
• Recent management shakeup comments, especially Jordan's departure - Meg didn't speak of it directly, only alluded to it in the beginning of her comments by saying what a great management team eBay has.
• Impact of partnership with Yahoo (YHOO) regarding both search and PayPal - Not too much talk on the subject but Meg expects that the partnership will deliver good results and help monetize pages they're not monetizing now.
• Statements about eBay Express going forward - eBay Express should definitely gain traction in H2. As Sarah wrote in the LiveBlogging post: "Early survey results say that nine out of 10 users are positive toward eBay Express, and five out of 10 say they'll use eBay more b/c of it."

Something I haven't mentioned (maybe trying to forget about it) is Skype. Skype revenue rose 26% to $44 million and eBay still expects $200 million from Skype in 2006. Not much, but fine. Skype did hurt margins though.

In addition, an announcement of the first ever stock buyback was somewhat predicted at these levels. However, the $2 billion over 2 years could have been higher. It's enough to signal the market they think the stock is cheap, but not enough to affect 2006 EPS.

Last, the guidance for the year is unchanged, on track. I had hopes, but I'll take that too.

So what do I think? I think these were solid results and the buyback was certainly a nice touch even if it won't do much but show investors the management confidence in the company. I'm not sure Meg touched on the issue of growth enough though.

Next - what analysts have to say.