Ebay Is The Latest Tech Behemoth To Announce Mass Layoffs
In a open letter to company employees, Jamie Iannone, President and CEO of eBay, announced a need for change. Hinting at over-employment by the company during the Covid pandemic as well as projected weak fourth quarter earning results, the company has decided to streamline itself by getting rid of approximately 1,000 full-time roles plus reduce external contract hires over the coming months.
Over an unspecified period, eBay will begin notifying employees who will be nixed. US employees are also being requested to begin working from home starting January 24. Beyond the downsizing announcement, Iannone did not share details on severance benefits.
While eBay reported a surprisingly decent 5 percent revenue gain in Q1 2023 to $2.5 billion (despite post-pandemic predictions) and a $545 million profit in Q3, the tech company has been relatively stagnant since 2021. With projected weak Q4 results due to poor consumer spending on refurbished goods, it seems like the company is buttoning down the hatches. Iannone says that, "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. "
Getting laid off is never a good thing, but yet eBay's decision is part of a wider-scale change within the tech industry right now. Granted, layoffs haven't reached the stratospheric numbers of early 2023, but so far, we're seeing companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Discord (to name a few) already cutting back on their workforces. We wish those looking for new jobs the best.
