SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) – EBay Inc said it expects revenue at its PayPal unit to double by 2013 as it sought on Thursday to cast itself as a reinvented company and an innovator at the center of e-commerce.

Shares of eBay, which over the past two years has been seeking to shed an image of an Internet has-been, jumped nearly 8 percent following the PayPal comments during an investor meeting at its San Jose, California, headquarters.

The company expects PayPal’s revenue to reach $6 billion to $7 billion by 2013, PayPal President Scott Thompson said. Revenue in the unit was $3.4 billion in 2010.

PayPal, which is used by 59 percent of the top 100 online merchants in the United States and 40 percent in Britain, is on track to gain market share of up to 24 percent by 2013, executives said.

Meanwhile, PayPal’s merchant services business, which is geared to businesses, will be larger in 2013 than all of PayPal’s business today, reflecting growth in that one channel, the company said.

“No one has the breadth and depth of our capabilities,” said Thompson.

EBay’s two main businesses are its online marketplace, which remains in turnaround, and its fast-growing PayPal, an online payments company.

SAN JOSE, Feb 10 (Reuters) – EBay Inc (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), seeking to cast off a perception that it is behind the curve, strove on Thursday to cast itself as a reinvented company and an innovator at the center of tech-driven e-commerce.

It also said it expected revenue at its PayPal unit to reach $6 to $7 billion by 2013.

“We are a different eBay,” said eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe, speaking at an analyst day held at its San Jose headquarters.

“We’re at an inflection point where tech-driven innovation is broadly shaping e-commerce and shifting consumer behavior. This shift is creating new global opportunities for our company,” he said. “We are driving the next generation of e-commerce.”

The company’s two main businesses are its online marketplace, which remains in a turnaround, and its fast-growing PayPal, an online payments company.

The company expects PayPal’s revenue to reach $6 billion to $7 billion by 2013, PayPal president Scott Thompson, said. Revenue in the unit was $3.4 billion in 2010.

But investors are anxious to see stabilization and growth at eBay’s marketplaces site, which represents the bulk of revenue — $5.7 billion in 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co said on Tuesday that fourth-quarter net profit rose 28 percent, helped by strength in the company’s U.S. Levi’s retail business and improved wholesale sales in Europe.

Despite the positive results during the holiday quarter, the economic recovery around the world was still “tenuous,” said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen.

“We’re putting a lot of focus on Europe going forward and we’re pleased we’re starting to see growth coming back but we’re very cautious,” Jorgensen told Reuters. “The U.S. is tenuous and Europe is more likely to be tenuous for another year beyond the U.S.”

The private company, which reports quarterly profit due to its publicly held debt, said that fourth-quarter net income was $86 million, up from $67 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue rose 7 percent to $1.29 billion, the San Francisco-based company said.

The company has been focused on promoting its Levi’s brand through advertising and company-owned store openings even as other more mature markets like Japan and Southern Europe have been in a protracted slump.

In the Americas region, revenue rose 7 percent, while European revenue rose 4 percent, or 11 percent on a constant currency basis. Revenue rose 8 percent in Asia, or 3 percent excluding currency fluctuations.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Gap Inc (GPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will name its top outlet executive Art Peck as the new head of Gap North America as it looks to speed up a flagging turnaround at the apparel brand, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gap announced that Marka Hansen, who led the Gap brand in North America since 2007, was stepping down and her successor would be named within a day.

Multiple sources inside and outside of the company, who asked not be named, cited Art Peck as the likely candidate to replace Hansen.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that Peck would be named.

Peck, who is also executive vice president of strategy and operations for the company, is in the unique position of working at both the corporate and divisional levels.

Hired in 2005 from the Boston Consulting Group, Peck oversaw corporate strategy before being tapped three years later by Chief Executive Glenn Murphy to head the outlet unit, which operates stores under the Gap and Banana Republic brands.

In a bid to potentially raise Peck’s profile on Wall Street, Murphy has cited Peck’s efforts at the company in recent conference calls with analysts, calling outlets “a very successful part of the corporation.”

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Impatient over the slow pace of its sales recovery, Gap Inc said the head of Gap North America will step down, as the apparel brand tries to reinvigorate its merchandise and flagging stock price.

Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America since 2007, is leaving Feb 4, and will be replaced by an insider to be named shortly, Gap said on Tuesday.

Hansen — a 24-year company veteran who held top roles at Gap, Banana Republic and in the International division — was a merchandiser charged with attracting new design talent to bring the most appealing line of clothing into stores and simplifying operations.

But while Hansen succeeded in making the supply chain function more efficiently and naming the respected Patrick Robinson as head designer, her efforts did not bring about a lasting turnaround in sales.

Despite the successful launch of jeans and black casual pants that sparked hopes the retailer was looking to its one-time signature look of classic, casual and comfortable style, the gains could not be sustained.

Those merchandising efforts “were not sufficient to lift Gap’s results and fuel market share gains,” wrote Stifel Nicolaus analyst Richard Jaffe in a note to clients.

Morgan Stanley analyst Kimberly Greenberger called the central unanswered question for investors “Gap’s ability to drive positive same-store sales growth, particularly at Gap North America.”

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Once again, Amazon is saying, trust us, we know what we’re doing. Many investors do, but others have run out of patience.

Amazon.com (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) received a pummeling in the market after it estimated low profit margins for its first quarter – the result of the cost of ongoing investments in distribution centers to expand capacity.

Shares in the world’s largest online retailer fell as much as 10 percent on Friday, a day after the release of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings report, reversing advances the stock has made since November. [ID:nN27148561]

For a look at Amazon’s operating profit margins since 2005, click here r.reuters.com/haj77r

At least four brokerages cut their price targets on the stock, while two others raised them. [ID:nSGE70R0CO]

It’s not the first time the market has reacted unfavorably to a period of investment by Amazon. Shares remained largely static in 2006 during a period of heavy spending on technology.

Despite dashed hopes for better margins in the near term, many investors are looking to the second half of the year, and beyond, for an ultimate payoff.

LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Buying Ocado, the loss-making British online grocer, would give Amazon.com the model for cutting-edge customer service it would need to crack the market for selling groceries.

And if anyone can make money selling food online, it is surely the world’s biggest internet retailer, which could add its enormous catalog of general merchandise goods to the range of products customers could buy with their regular grocery shop.

The question is, will it take the plunge?

Amazon appears undecided, no doubt mindful of the difference between selling books and DVDs by mail and delivering multi-temperature, perishable goods in fixed time slots.

But Greg Hodge, research director at consultants Planet Retail, thinks he knows which way the U.S. group will jump.

“Amazon have grown by adding more and more product ranges … and there is a great growth opportunity in food,” he said, pointing to British online grocery sales rising around 20 percent year-on-year.

Amazon, which has recently bought the owner of Diapers.com and Soap.com, has been expanding the number of household goods and groceries it sells in individual transactions to shoppers, and is also testing Amazon Fresh, a service on its home turf in Seattle where fresh groceries are delivered to your door.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com investors got a wake-up call on Thursday when the world’s biggest online retailer said its profit margins were sliding as it spends money on massive new distribution centers and acquisitions.

The company also reported slightly lower-than-expected sales for the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday season, as it offered discounts and free shipping to attract customers.

Amazon’s shares, which had gained 5.2 percent earlier in the day, lost that advance and more to fall $16.46 lower than their close in after-hours trading. They had risen more than 70 percent in the past six months, reaching an all-time high of $191.25 last week — leaving plenty of room for disappointment.

“I think people were expecting kind of a blowout when they looked at data points that suggested that e-commerce spending potentially had the strongest quarter in three years,” said Evercore Partners Ken Sena.

The company posted a slight dip in operating profit for the holiday fourth quarter even as revenue rose 36 percent, signaling the high cost of keeping competitive in the highly promotional retail environment.

Fourth-quarter operating margin declined to 3.7 percent from 5 percent a year earlier. Amazon warned that in the current quarter it could drop to between 2.8 percent and 3.8 percent — well below its 5.5 percent of the first quarter of 2010.

“Operating income (guidance) for the first quarter is well below the consensus and the stock is taking a big hit,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management. “It could be that they’re back to the spending mode.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com posted holiday quarterly revenue that fell short of analysts’ estimates and forecast disappointing first-quarter operating margins on Thursday, and its shares fell almost 10 percent.

Fourth-quarter revenue for the global online retailer was $12.95 billion. Analysts on average forecast $13.01 billion.

Amazon’s fourth-quarter operating profit margin was 3.7 versus 5.0 a year earlier, a sign of how much Amazon and other retailers had to discount to attract customers during the holidays, analysts said.

“Topline still seems to be really strong, but to meet this demand they’re having to invest in fulfillment and distribution and that’s taking a little bit of a short-term margin toll,” analyst Ken Sena at Evercore Partners said.

For the first quarter, Amazon said it expects revenue between $9.1 billion and $9.9 billion. Wall Street expects revenue of $9.31 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(For graphic click r.reuters.com/nyd77r)

Amazon expects first-quarter operating profit between $260 million and $385 million, including $140 million for stock-based compensation and asset amortization.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of Amazon.com rose on Thursday, hours before the Web retailer is expected to report impressive quarterly revenue gains from the holiday season, though 2011 profit margins may temper investor enthusiasm.

The company, which began as a Web bookstore and now is the world’s largest online retailer, reported revenue gains of at least 39 percent in the past three quarters, and shares reached all-time highs last week, reflecting Wall Street’s expectations.

The company will provide a first glimpse of its profit expectations for 2011 after the U.S. stock market closes. This could show that investments and a focus on revenue, rather than profit, will continue to temper margins.

Amazon’s shares were up $6.07, or 3.46 percent, at $181.46 Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

William Lefkowitz, options strategist at New York-based brokerage firm vFinance Investments, cited aggressive call buying in the Amazon weekly call options expiring Friday.

“Investors are expecting Amazon to move significantly in the aftermath of their earnings,” Lefkowitz said, adding that among the most popular were the $180, $185, $195 and $200 weekly strike calls.

“The premiums of these options are relatively rich given that they expire on Friday, suggesting optimism going into earnings,” he said.