Monday, October 6, 2008

eBay Buys Companies, Lays Of 1,000

San Jose-based eBay said this morning that it has acquired BillMeLater and two Danish classifieds sites, and has also laid off 1,000 employees, or approximately 10 percent of its employees. According to eBay, it is acquiring Bill Me Later in a deal worth $820M in cash plus $125M in options, acquired classifieds site dba.dk and vehicles sites bilbasen.dk, for $390M in cash. In the layoff, eBay said it would reduce its worforce by 1,000 employees, in addition to "several hundred" temporary workers and reduction of open positions. According to the firm, the cuts are intended to simplify and streamline the firm's organization.