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EBay Inc. reported a boost in profit in the fourth quarter, as a strong holiday season for e-commerce buoyed the company's efforts to turn around its struggling marketplace division.

Net income nearly quadrupled, thanks to the company's sale of telecommunications unit Skype to a group of investors for $1.9 billion. Excluding that gain, the company's net income rose 12%.

Revenue increased 16% -- thanks in large part to growth in the company's PayPal online payments unit and improvements in eBay's core marketplace business.

EBay, of San Jose, Calif., has been trying to regain its once-dominant position in e-commerce as consumer shopping habits shift away from the online auctions that it pioneered. Since taking over the company two years ago, Chief Executive John Donahoe has instituted changes to the rules and rewards of its marketplace to emphasize fixed-price listings, and attract listings from larger, high-volume merchants.

EBay said it sold Skype because the telecommunications software didn't fit well within the company's core business of connecting buyers and sellers.

The results from the marketplace division "demonstrate continued progress as we improve value, selection and trust and turn around this business," said Mr. Donahoe on a conference call.

Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co., said "the turn-around is well within their grasp." Nonetheless, he said that it is hard to distinguish how much of eBay's growth is coming from the company's own changes -- and how much is a reflection of the overall growth in e-commerce.

"They are participating in this shift we've seen this year to e-commerce," Mr. Munster said. But eBay isn't participating at nearly the same level as Amazon.com Inc., he added.

EBay's net income for the period ended Dec. 31 rose to $1.35 billion, or $1.02 a share, from $367.2 million, or 29 cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $2.37 billion from $2.04 billion. Excluding the Skype gain and stock compensation, eBay put earnings per share at 44 cents, compared to a 40-cent average analyst estimated as reported by Thomson Reuters.

For the current quarter, eBay estimated that revenue would grow 12% to 18% from the year-earlier period, with revenue expected to grow between 8% and 13%. For the full year, eBay said that it expected revenue to grow 9% to 12%, with earnings rising 11% to 14%.