Ebay may cut 1,500 jobs: Barron's

[OhioChick]

Sep 14, 9:21 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. online auctioneer eBay Inc may cut 1,500 jobs, according to an article in Barron's weekly, citing a report published last week by investment-research firm Wedge Partners.

The Wedge report, according to Barron's, said eBay's business was "deteriorating" and the company was readying layoffs that could affect 10 percent of its 15,000 employees.

Wedge Partners and eBay could not immediately be reached for comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080914/wr_nm/ebay_dc

Nothing like a solid economy. :sarcasm:

[villager]

1. wouldn't more people use eBay in a down economy? Or have they all gone to Craigslist?

:shrug:

[Bill219]

5. Alot of sellers

Such as myself have abandoned ebay due to their draconian policies against the sellers.

The constant fee hikes and other misc charges and the change to the feedback system where sellers can no longer issue negative feedback sent sellers looking for alternative means to sell their items. This change alone has brought about an increase in non paying bidders.

In October, sellers will no longer to be able to accept Checks or money orders as payment because ebay has now decided that the only acceptable form of payment is Paypal now

On top of all of this, they are now contacting sellers if they think that the shipping charges are too much even though they seem to have no idea how much it actually costs to ship an item

[villager]

6. Wow -- been a while since I sold/bought there regularly... What/who's their main comptetition, then?

n/t

[Gwendolyn]

8. They got involved in lawsuits that are taking them to the cleaners.

[lapfog_1]

2. Couldn't sell Sarah's plane!

off with their heads!

[louis-t]

3. Maybe people have no more stuff to sell

to pay their bills.

[Daveparts]

4. More likely

No more money to buy

[aquart]

7. eBay's in trouble???? EBAY??

Dear sweet Lord.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

9. isn't ebay run by a total neocon McSame/Boosh supporter?

I think so, and that is enough to turn me off on ebay forever.

[Lorien]

11. Yep, and they screw over sellers big time. It's gotten MUCH worse

since the latest neo-con nutcase took over. Sellers now refer to it as "feebay"; eBay has raised the final value fee considerably, has done away with feedback for buyers, making it hard to weed out the scammers and more difficult for buyers to set up good reputations before they start to sell. eBay also won't help you out at all if you get ripped off by a shady buyer. It's become just another RW method for profit while screwing the rest of us.

[Gwendolyn]

10. And the best part of it all... ex-CEO is an adviser to McCain!

"A number of key execs also left after the January departure of CEO Meg Whitman: president Rajiv Dutta of Paypal, and venture capitalist Bob Kagle of Benchmark, who sat on eBay's board since its birth.

For executives that stayed and must now face the auction gavel, eBay's golden parachutes should ease the blow. SEC filings report some will receive two years' target cash compensation (annual base salary plus a target annual incentive bonus — usually 100 percent of salary, making the package equivalent to four years of compensation).

Whitman is on the payroll until year's end. She also gets office space, IT and secretarial support for three additional years and will remain on the board until 2010. In what the WebGuild identifies as a stroke of irony, the former eBay CEO is currently advising on the Presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, whose platform advocates jobs for more Americans. Layoffs at eBay peddle a conflicting message."

From Marketing Vox

http://www.marketingvox.com/ebay-to-shaft-10-of-employee-headcount-040956/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

[ihavenobias]

12. Oh relax, the fundamentals of the economy are strong

;)