EBay profits up 76 percent

Brisk sales of laptops and other back-to-school gear, as well as gangbuster growth in England and South Korea, helped eBay Inc.’s profit surge more than 76 percent from the same period last year.

Squeaking past Wall Street’s expectations, the online auction giant announced third-quarter earnings Wednesday of $182.35 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $103.25 million, or 16 cents per share in the same period of 2003.

Excluding special items, eBay earned $194.97 million, or 28 cents per share, up from $118.33 million, or 18 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2003. Analysts expected San Jose, Calif.-based eBay to earn 27 cents per share, excluding special items, on total sales of $779.74 million.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company reported revenue of $805.88 million, up 52 percent from the same period last year.

EBay’s transaction revenue in the United States last quarter was $330.6 million, up 29 percent from the same quarter of 2003. International transaction revenue in the same period surged 82 percent, to $282.3 million.

• Allstate Corp. said Wednesday its third-quarter earnings plummeted 92 percent due to heavy insurance claims from the hurricanes that battered Florida and the Southeast.

Allstate, the second-largest U.S. property casualty insurer behind State Farm and the biggest in Florida, sustained $1.11 billion in total catastrophe losses for the quarter. More than 95 percent of it, or $1.06 billion, was from the four major storms — hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

As a result, net earnings for the July-through-September quarter were just $56 million, or 9 cents per share, down from $691 million, or 97 cents per share, a year earlier.

• Eastman Kodak Co., boosted by the sale of a remote sensing business and gains in digital photography, recorded a sharply higher profit in the third quarter. The results beat Wall Street expectations but Kodak’s shares tumbled more than 9 percent as sales rose a slim 1 percent overall and were down more than expected in its traditional film and camera businesses.

The world’s biggest film manufacturer, which is navigating a tough transition to filmless photography, said Wednesday it earned $479 million, or $1.67 a share, in the July-September period, up from $122 million, or 42 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding restructuring costs and a gain of $434 million, or $1.51 a share, from the sale of its historic remote sensing systems business, profits were $226 million, or 79 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected earnings of 72 cents a share.

• Office Depot Inc. said Wednesday that third-quarter earnings fell nearly 2 percent as back-to-school and European sales were weaker than expected for the nation’s second-largest office supply retailer.

Office Depot reported net income of $89.9 million, or 28 cents a share, in the three months ended Sept. 25, compared to $91.7 million, or 29 cents a share, a year ago.

• Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc., which shed 80 percent of its work force through spinoffs and layoffs amid multibillion dollar losses, has recorded its first profitable year since 2000.

Lucent also reported a larger profit for its fourth fiscal quarter and predicted percentage revenue growth “in the mid-single digits” for the next fiscal year following a 7 percent gain this past year.

The company had net income of $348 million, or 7 cents a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with earnings of $77 million, or 2 cents a share, after payment of preferred dividends a year ago.