eBay told reporters on Thursday it would lay off 125 employees in North America, Belgium, Spain and Austria. The East Bay Business Times said 70 employees at eBay's San Jose headquarters would be laid off.

The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The restructuring shifts more people and resources into the areas Mr. Donahoe deems important in modernizing and improving eBay's auction marketplace. The reorganization of the customer-service group, for instance, supports his efforts to make the auction Web site more appealing to merchants, who pay fees that generate revenue for eBay and buyers, who need to return to the site to keep attracting sellers." Donahoe is replacing Meg Whitman as CEO on March 31, 2008.

The AP said an eBay spokesperson called the layoffs part of a reorganization to streamline operations, not an effort to cut costs. eBay has 15,500 employees globally.

Wall Street analysts had predicted the eBay layoffs in January (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m01/i23/s01).

East Bay Business Times
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2008/03/17/daily69.html

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSL2080124120080320

AP
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJeFx_vnNwiEeHi-0oYhKqVENJKwD8VHCK401

Wall Street Journal (Paid subscription required.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120604188830152511.html