eBay to cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce
Online shopping giant eBay is set to cut 1,000 jobs in a bid to cut costs.
The company's CEO, Jamie Iannone, announced the news in a message to staff, explaining that the cuts are due to the business not growing as much as its workforce and costs. Mr Iannone explained that those being let go will be informed via Zoom calls with their bosses.
He asked employees to work from home on Wednesday to allow privacy for these difficult conversations. In his note, which was shared online, the CEO said: "We need to better organise our teams for speed - allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly."
Despite the tough changes, Iannone remains optimistic, stating: "These changes are difficult, but I'm confident that by working together we will become stronger than ever." eBay, based in San Jose, California, is the latest tech firm to announce layoffs after rapidly increasing hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic as people spent more time and money online.
Now, other big names like Google and Amazon are also making job cuts to save money and boost their profits. Recently, Google declared that they're letting go of hundreds of employees in their hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams, while TikTok revealed its cutting jobs in ads and sales.
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In addition, the video game developer Riot Games, known for "League of Legends", announced an 11% staff cut. Amazon is reducing several hundred positions in its Prime Video and MGM Studios department this month.
The online shopping juggernaut also shared news about its affiliates, Audible and streaming site Twitch, who are downsizing about 5% and more than 500 workers respectively earlier this year. Further, other tech giants such as Spotify, Microsoft, Meta and IBM have also recently slashed jobs.
These retrenchments come amidst a slowing economy due to quick interest rate increases introduced by central banks globally to oppose massive inflation. eBay's chief identified these worries when talking about pruning its staff: "Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we control," Mr Iannone said.
eBay has been hit with a hefty $3 million fine to settle U.S. criminal charges. This comes after employees sent live spiders, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies to the home of a Massachusetts couple, according to court documents released this month.
The Justice Department accused eBay of stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. This happened more than three years after the employees were prosecuted for their part in a large-scale scheme to intimidate a couple who ran an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes. The newsletter had upset eBay executives with its coverage.
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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