Following the eBay, PayPal division, the first round of layoffs has begun. They had announced a 7 percent cut in workforce last month spreading across various departments. John Donahoe president and CEO of ebay Inc had said, “We plan to reduce our workforce globally by approximately 2,400 positions, across eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, and eBay Enterprise.”
The official notices were released this Monday, multiple sources told Re/Code. The layoffs mostly comprised of sales and product division employees, especially in the category of PayPal for small businesses as well as restaurants.
Paypal’s in-store initiatives, including mobile payments and credit card reader paypal here were also reportedly the first to be laid off. Beacon, another product which didn’t pan off even after 2 years of released also saw layoffs in the first round.
EBay shares were up 2.6 percent at $54.75 in after hours trade as per their reports. The reported fourth-quarter earnings were slightly over Wall Street expectations, but its outlook for the 2015 first quarter and full year fell short of estimates. For the 2015 first quarter, eBay forecast earnings between 68 cents and 71 cents a share, below analysts’ estimates of 76 cents per share. Its revenue forecast of $4.35 billion to $4.45 billion fell short of the average Wall Street forecast of a little over $4.7 billion.
In an effort to streamline its portfolio and cost structure, paypal seems to be shifting its focus back to core- web and in-app payments. Sources indicate that PayPal’s Braintree unit, which houses the red-hot Venmo peer-to-peer payments app, is not affected by the cuts. Ebay’s Marketplace and Enterprise division aren’t facing the heat either, reports suggested.
The layoffs are under CEO designee Dan Schulman’s directive. EBay CEO John Donahoe told Re/Code that the layoffs were being decided by the heads of eBay’s three businesses: eBay Marketplaces, eBay Enterprise and PayPal.
(image credit: Ian Sane)
