Technology, Auction | featured news

EBay Inc reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations, but the e-commerce company also gave a cautious forecast for 2013. EBay shares climbed 1.7 percent to $53.80 in after-hours trading following the announcement. Expectations were high ahead of the results because sales data from outside sources suggested strong sales growth from eBay's online marketplace and a solid increase in transactions processed by the company's PayPal payments business.

Dateline: Dungeon and Dragons — if you're looking for a spell to aid you on your next adventure, traveler, then you're sorely out of luck. The great and powerful internet auction house eBay has henceforth banned all sales of wizardly enchantments and magic spells, even if you have a vacuum cleaner's worth of gold to offer.

The auction of online video website Hulu LLC is chugging along, with financial advisers working to compare the various offers for the company after last week's latest bidding deadline.

U.S. prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into whether eBay Inc employees misappropriated confidential information from classified ad service Craigslist, according to a copy of a grand jury subpoena obtained by Reuters.

Alibaba.com CEO David Wei resigned after an internal investigation found that more than 2,300 sellers on the e-commerce site were committing fraud, sometimes with the help of Alibaba.com sales staff.

After a three year investigation and countless complaints, a south Florida man will spend 5 1/2 years behind bars for running one of the largest eBay scams in the history of eBay. The details of the massive operation include, hundreds of auction accounts, multiple identities and constantly changing PO Boxes.

It's been through several owners, legal battles and even the subject of books, but Sex.com will be sold once again in an auction next month.

EBay's profit nearly quadrupled on strength in PayPal and the core marketplace business as well as a $1.4 billion gain from the selling a majority stake in Skype.