eBay Lays off 10% of Its Workforce and Acquires Bill Me Later
Written by Pablo Palatnik on October 6, 2008
If this isn’t a sign of the time, I dont know what is. One of the largest online companies in the world has announced laying 10% of its workforce, reports the New York Times.
Aside from lay offs, eBay announced its acquisition of Bill Me Later, a company that is described as “… a convenient and secure way to pay on the web or over the phone. Bill Me Later lets users pay without using a credit card. At checkout, provide your birthday and the last four digits of your social security number and your purchase is complete. It’s that easy! There are no codes to find or account numbers to remember.
Millions of shoppers love Bill Me Later because it’s fast, simple and secure. Leading web stores and catalogs love Bill Me Later because they want to offer easy, safe, and convenient options for their customers at check-out.”
BillMeLater only accepts website clients doing over $10 million dollars in revenue. Given that PayPal was acquired by eBay and has been by far their greatest investment to date making money from all transactions and the biggest online merchant, BillMeLater enters the same realm for eBay and should prove to be a very successful investment.
The NY Times also reports, “EBay also announced on Monday that it was acquiring the popular Danish classified advertising site DBA.dk and the automotive marketplace BilBasen.dk for $390 million from the Danish media mogul Karsten Ree. The deal is one of the largest in Denmark’s history. A local newspaper reported that the companies had negotiated on and off for four years.”
As eBay continues to Rival its nemesis, Amazon, it still needs to continue making moves to move stronger into other markets (online merchant seems to be their strong point with PayPal). eBays’ attempt at social media with StumbleUpon remains to be judged as a wise or useless investment.
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