eBay is laying off 400 of its 1,000 workers in Germany, its second-largest market after the U.S. The move comes after eBay laid off 700 workers in Vancouver, Canada, effective last month. According to German newspaper Speigel, eBay said it was not in an economic emergency, and said the process should be completed by mid-2010.
eBay has been cutting staff and services since last year when John Donahoe, a management consultant from Bain & Co., took the helm of eBay from Meg Whitman, now running for governor in the state of California. eBay cut 10 percent of its global workforce late last year.
Spiegel said eBay Germany would transfer a portion of the customer service to Dublin, Ireland.
eBay spun the news as a positive, issuing a press release (German-language) heralding an "eBay European Competence Center for Customer Service" in Dublin. The release said eBay is currently negotiating with the works council in Germany on the proposals.
