eBay Workforce High Bidder in Pink Slip Auction
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 6, 2008 at 7:23 AM PT
The hammer has fallen at eBay. This morning the online auctioneer sacked about 1,000 permanent employees and a few hundred temps, about 10 percent of its workforce. That’s a bit less than the 1,500 workers for whom the company was rumored to be writing up pink slips, but it’s substantial just the same. The cuts, according to eBay (EBAY), are “intended to simplify and streamline eBay’s organization, improve the company’s cost structure and strengthen the overall competitiveness of the company’s existing businesses.” They were announced in concert with two acquisitions. EBay is purchasing online-payment company Bill Me Later for $820 million in cash and approximately $125 million in outstanding options. It’s also acquiring Denmark’s leading online classifieds site, dba.dk, and vehicles site bilbasen.dk for approximately $390 million in cash.
For eBay, whose shares have plummeted some 43 percent in the last year, the moves are further efforts to prop itself after the declining performance of its core marketplace division.
