eBay 2013 Annual Report Download - page 15

terrorist financing laws or regulations,” and “Our Payments business is subject to consumer protection laws and regulations”;
It is difficult for us to forecast the level or source of our revenues or earnings accurately. In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our
business, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of
future performance. We do not have backlog, and substantially all of our net revenues each quarter come from transactions involving sales or
payments during that quarter. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting revenues, it is also difficult to forecast income statement expenses as a
percentage of net revenues. Quarterly and annual income statement expenses as a percentage of net revenues may be significantly different from
historical or projected rates. Our operating results in one or more future quarters may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and
investors. In that event, the trading price of our common stock would almost certainly decline.
We invest heavily in technology, marketing and promotion, customer support, protection programs and further development of the
operating infrastructure for our operations. Some of this investment entails long-term contractual
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• new laws or regulations (such as those that may stem from the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Trans-
Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the European Consumer Rights Directive and the proposed revisions to the European Data
Protection Directive) and interpretations of existing laws or regulations, including national court interpretations of the European
Court of Justice's decision in the L'Oréal case (see “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” below), that impose liability on us for the actions of
our users or otherwise harm our business models, especially as we become more actively involved in various aspects of transactions
on our platforms;
• regulatory and legal actions imposing obligations on our businesses or our users, including the injunction related to certain cosmetic
and perfume brands (see “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” below);
•
our ability to manage the costs of compliance with existing and new laws and regulations that affect our businesses;
• new laws or regulations (in particular, financial or privacy laws or regulations) enacted in jurisdictions in which we do business that
require data (including customer information, transaction data or other information) to be stored locally on servers in that jurisdiction
and/or prohibit such data from being transmitted outside of that jurisdiction, which would increase our operational costs or capital
expenditures and potentially impact the performance and availability of our services and/or our ability to use or process customer
data;
•
the volume, velocity, size, timing, monetization, and completion rates of transactions using our websites or technology;
• our ability to reduce the loss of active buyers and sellers and increase activity of the users of our Marketplaces business, especially
with respect to our top buyers and sellers, and increase activity of PayPal account holders, particularly in our merchant services
business;
• our ability to develop product enhancements, programs, and features on different platforms and mobile devices at a reasonable cost
and in a timely manner, including our initiatives to make several PayPal solutions available at the retail point of sale;
•
changes to our use of advertising on our websites and mobile platforms;
•
the costs and results of litigation or regulatory actions that involve us;
• business disruptions, costs and future events related to the unsolicited non-binding proposal and director nominations made by Icahn
Enterprises L.P. and the pending proxy contest;
•
technical difficulties or service interruptions involving our websites;
•
disruptions to services provided to us or our users by third parties;
•
our ability to manage the transaction loss rate in our Marketplaces, Payments and Enterprise businesses;
• our ability to manage funding costs, credit risk and interest-
rate risk associated with our Bill Me Later business;
• our ability to successfully and cost-
effectively integrate and manage businesses that we acquire;
• the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures relating to the maintenance and expansion of our businesses,
operations and infrastructure;
• our ability to comply with the requirements of entities whose services are required for our operations, such as payment card networks
and banks;
•
the cost and availability of traditional and online advertising, and the success of our brand building and marketing campaigns;
•
our ability to attract new personnel in a timely and effective manner and to retain key employees;
•
the continued healthy operation of our technology suppliers and other commercial counterparties;
• continued consumer acceptance of the Internet and of mobile devices as a medium for commerce and payments in the face of
increasing publicity about data privacy issues, including breaches, fraud, spoofing, phishing, viruses, spyware, malware and other
dangers; and
•
macroeconomic and geopolitical events affecting commerce generally.