Business briefs: Ebay profits rise | Sony to buy EMI publishing arm

EBAY’S first-quarter profits rose to $725 million (£452m) from $619m a year earlier, the online auction site has revealed.

The US firm’s revenues jumped 29 per cent to $3.3 billion compared to the same three months in 2011. The group noted that the better-than-expected performance was driven by growth in its Marketplace and PayPal businesses, and forecast revenues in Q2 of between $3.25bn and $3.35bn. For the whole of 2012, the company said it expected revenues of between $13.8bn and $14.1bn.

Sony’s £1.4bn EMI bid backed by EU

A CONSORTIUM led by Sony was yesterday given permission by the EU’s competition regulator to buy EMI’s music publishing business for $2.2 billion (£1.4bn) – as long as it sells the worldwide publishing rights to work by artists including Robbie Williams and Lenny Kravitz. The back-catalogues to be sold consist of tracks published by Virgin and Famous Music UK. They include artists such as Gary Barlow, the Kooks and Ozzy Osbourne.