eBay Announces Layoffs Of 500 Employees Globally

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay has announced they will be laying off ~500 employees globally in their most recent 8-K filing, which is about 4% of their total workforce.

eBay Inc. - Financial Information - SEC Filings - SEC Filings Details

On February 7, 2023, Jamie Iannone, Chief Executive Officer of eBay Inc. (“eBay”), shared the following message with eBay employees:

Team,
Over the past few months, we’ve taken a thoughtful look at where we are as a company with considerations of the macroeconomic situation around the world and how to best invest and operate so that we can continue to be successful. To create long-term, sustainable growth for eBay, we need to evolve our organization as we take the next step in our strategy — focused on driving growth, building a trusted marketplace, empowering enthusiasts and seeding new technologies for the future.

As a result of these considerations and our future-forward plans, I have some hard news to share. Over the next 24 hours, we’ll be letting approximately 500 employees globally know that their jobs will be eliminated. This number represents about 4% of our total employee base. In some locations, the notifications are proposals subject to consultation as required by applicable law.

There is no easy way to communicate this — but I do want to share with you why we are making this decision, and where we’re headed next.

Today’s actions are designed to strengthen our ability to deliver better end-to-end experiences for our customers and to support more innovation and scale across our platform. They also help us make sure we’re concentrating on where we can make the biggest impact, including expanding Focus Categories, creating trusted experiences and investing in new technologies.

Importantly, this shift gives us additional space to invest and create new roles in high-potential areas — new technologies, customer innovations and key markets — and to continue to adapt and flex with the changing macro, ecommerce and technology landscape. We’re also simplifying our structure to make decisions more effectively and with more speed.

On a more personal note, I want to acknowledge that while these actions will move our business forward, they also affect our colleagues. For those directly impacted by these changes, I know this news is particularly difficult. Thank you for your incredible talent, passion, and achievements to help get us to where we are today. I’m so grateful for the impact that you made at eBay. We want to support you as you navigate the transition including providing comprehensive transition packages with severance and employee incentive payments.

While today’s actions are not easy, I know this team will come together to support each other as eBayers always do. The dedication and commitment that you all bring every day on behalf of our customers — and each other — inspires me every day. I look forward to the opportunities for growth and innovation in our future.

Jamie

According to Mercury News, 185 of the cut jobs were from eBay's San Jose headquarters and a satellite office in San Francisco.

eBay will slash nearly 200 Bay Area jobs as tech layoffs worsen
eBay has disclosed plans to eliminate nearly 200 jobs in the Bay Area.

The news will likely not come as a surprise to Value Added Resource readers - I've been tracking a significant drop in open job positions at the company since last July and predicted it may be leading to layoffs after the first of the year.

Could Hiring Slowdown, Layoffs Be On The Horizon At eBay?
As pandemic-fueled ecom boom wanes, tech companies are slowing hiring, announcing layoffs - is eBay next?

It also puts an interesting light on the recent overwhelming news coverage afforded to eBay for having just 8 open Web3 positions for its KnownOrigins NFT marketplace.

Do eBay Web3 Jobs Signal End Of Hiring Slowdown?
eBay wants you to know they’re hiring for Web3 positions - does this mean the hiring slowdown is over?

It didn't make much sense to me at the time why eBay would want to flood the newswires over such a small number of job openings but now we know - it was simply a distraction.


"Importantly, this shift gives us additional space to invest and create new roles in high-potential areas — new technologies, customer innovations and key
markets."

Translation - sorry you lost your job, but I need a fancy crypto lawyer for the gimmicky NFT marketplace acquisition I'm stuck with.


Employees are discussing the layoffs over on Blind and The LayOff - no updates on which orgs are impacted yet, though it looks like at least a few experienced software engineers will be leaving the company.

eBay announced 4% layoffs today
Title. Just came through via email. No news on severance or who is impacted

Is it just me or is announcing this way and giving a 24 h waiting period a weird sort of torture? Why would they do it this way? What am I missing

eBay layoffs have started
I know because I was impacted, ha.I’m a senior software engineer, working in Java for almost 10 years. If anyone has openings or referrals, please DM me. Thanks!

Buyer experience impacted. Saw engineering manager who was here for 12 years got canned.

eBay 4% layoffs announced
~500 employees will be laid off by tomorrowedit: this thread also discusses the layoffs https://www.teamblind.com/post/eBay-layoffs-have-started-QnNU0Sg0

Recruiter laid off before our first meeting
I had applied for a role in eBay and recruiter was suppose to meet with me yesterday. She cancelled it just five minutes before the meeting and informed me that she is laid off. How can I contact them now?

I had applied for a role in eBay and recruiter was suppose to meet with me yesterday. She cancelled it just five minutes before the meeting and informed me that she is laid off. How can I contact them now?

eBayEarnings

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcerned3 days ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks30473 days ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi4 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.