This morning we get a glimpse of eBay's plans for Europe.
By the end of Q1 2009 eBay will shut down its operations in Poland and a majority of 39 countries in which it has local versions of its Internet auction portal.
Operations in Europe will be run from two headquarters in London and Bern. The plans mean laying off about 1,000 of its 16,000 strong workforce. "Persons who will stay in the company will be moved to eBay headquarters, or will be employed in PayPal or Skype," said Karol Świtała, spokesperson of eBay Polska.
Changes in the structure of the company should bring about savings of $70-80 million by the end of the year.
eBay currently has European regional operations in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. I am not sure if Turkey would be included in Europe, geographically it would make sense.
UPDATED
Much coverage in the European press as people realize that all country offices will be closed with the exception of course of London and Berne, Switzerland. It appears that all marketing will be run from the USA.
From Germany Der Tagesspiegel reports:
The Ebay speaker confirmed only that management functions are above average strongly affected by job reduction.
From Austria the Wirtschafts Blatt questions eBay's business model citing the cutting of jobs to save an estimated $70M next year while simultaneously spending $1.4B in a shopping spree.
If the supremacy of eBay a few years ago was undisputed it is no longer so, successful online dealers have gradually discovered alternative sales possibilities on the Internet, also in Austria. The strong arm enforcement of Paypal as a payment method has increasingly infuriated PowerSellers, who feel strong resentment at Ebay profiteering at their expense. It has been conjectured the trend to develop their own online Webshops could accelerate. For many dealers Ebay has become too complicated”, says a former Powerseller from Austria.
Y'all come back!
