EBay debates thousands of job cuts
EBay is mulling over the elimination of thousands of jobs next year after spinning off its payment services provider PayPal.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, eBay is considering taking the axe to 3,000 positions, which is roughly 10 percent of the company's workforce. Most of the cuts are likely to take place within the firm's core marketplace division, according to the publication's sources.
The San Jose, California-based online auction site could reportedly also be looking for potential bidders for the company after pushing ahead with what would be eBay's largest set of layoffs to date. In 2012, PayPal reduced its workforce by over 325 employees and 120 contractors in a restructuring exercise, slimming down mainly its technology and product units.
While there has been no official notification of such a move, eBay spokeswoman Amanda Miller told sister site CNET:
"We are focused on running the business and setting eBay and PayPal up for success as independent companies."
The reported layoffs come after the announcement that eBay and PayPal would split into two separate entities. Revealed in September, the move was unanimously approved by eBay's board of directors.
Under the terms of the split, eBay CEO John Donahoe will step down as chief executive and join one or both of the boards of the two new companies, while acting president of the eBay Marketplaces unit Devin Wenig will step up as CEO. Dan Schulman, newly hired from American Express, will become chief executive of PayPal.
eBay investors will be given one share of each company they currently hold in the online auction site, which is valued at roughly $65 billion.
Both companies are expected to operate independently by the middle of 2015.
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