CEO Jamie Iannone said in a message to employees on Tuesday
that the company also will reduce how many “contracts we have within our
alternate workforce over the coming months.”
Those who are being laid off will be told through Zoom calls
with their bosses, Iannone said, requesting that people work from home
Wednesday to allow privacy for those conversations.
“We need to better organize our teams for speed — allowing
us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more
quickly,” he said in the note, which was posted online.
“These changes are difficult, but I’m confident that by
working together we will become stronger than ever,” Iannone added.
San Jose, California-based eBay is the latest tech company
to roll out a series of layoffs after quickly ramping up hiring during the
COVID-19 pandemic while people spent more time and money online.
Now, companies from Google to Amazon have been making
painful job cuts to reduce costs and bolster their bottom lines.
Just this month, Google said it was laying off hundreds of
employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams,
while TikTok said its shedding dozens of workers in ads and sales and video
game developer Riot Games, behind the popular “League of Legends” multiplayer
battle game, was trimming 11% of its staff.
Meanwhile, Amazon said this month that it is cutting several
hundred jobs in its Prime Video and MGM Studios unit.
The online retail giant owns two other companies that
announced major layoffs in January: Audible, the online audiobook and podcast
service, which is trimming about 5% of its workforce, and streaming platform
Twitch that is cutting more than 500 jobs.
Other tech companies, including Spotify, Microsoft, Meta and
IBM, also have recently cut jobs.
They’re running into a slowing economy following rapid
interest rate hikes unleashed by central banks around the world to combat
soaring inflation.
The head of eBay pointed to those concerns in the need to
trim its workforce: “Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging
macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we
control,” Iannone said.
The company has also faced internal problems that hurt its
business. The online retailer will pay a $3 million fine to resolve U.S.
criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees who sent live
spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing items to the home of a Massachusetts
couple, according to court documents this month.
The Justice Department charged eBay with stalking, witness
tampering and obstruction of justice more than three years after the employees
were prosecuted in an extensive scheme to intimidate a couple who produced an
online newsletter called EcommerceBytes that upset eBay executives with its
coverage.
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