eBay cut costs, sold Skype and rebuilt its marketplace; revenue doubled by 2011

eBay's core auction business stalled in 2007–2008, and in the fourth quarter of 2008 its sales fell for the first time in its history, with profits plunging; the Mercury News reported it met estimates only through heavy cost cutting. John Donahoe, CEO since March 2008, cut costs sharply and shifted focus to the core marketplace, PayPal and fixed-price trading.

He divested Skype in 2009 and later bought GSI to bring big retailers onto the platform, while investing in search relevance and mobile. The 10-Ks show net revenues of $8,727 million (2009), $9,156 million (2010) and $11,652 million (2011).

Profitability recovered faster than revenue: net income went from $348 million in 2007 to $2,389 million in 2009 and $3,229 million in 2011 as cost discipline and PayPal carried the bottom line.

Net revenues rose from $8.73B (2009) to $11.65B (2011); net income hit $3.23B in 2011, up from $1.80B in 2010.

Cutting costs in late 2008 lowered the breakeven before the recovery began.

Selling Skype refocused capital and management on the marketplace and payments.

Making PayPal central gave eBay a second engine while auctions matured.

Relevance-based search and fixed-price listings rebuilt buyer conversion.

When a marketplace matures, fix the core experience and prune side bets before adding new businesses — growth returns to the platform, not the portfolio.

eBay sustained the rebound through 2012–2013, and PayPal grew valuable enough that the company spun it off in 2015, completing the refocus Donahoe had begun.