eBay considers cutting thousands of jobs in 2015

EBay Inc. is considering a plan to eliminate thousands of jobs early next year as it prepares to split off its PayPal payments unit, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. The cuts are expected to primarily affect workers in eBay’s core marketplace division, these people said. One said eBay has discussed trimming at least 3,000 jobs, or 10% of its total workforce. The planned layoffs appear to be part of eBay’s preparations to be a stand-alone company, and a potentially attractive takeover target. The marketplace division, which includes eBay.com and StubHub, is more profitable than PayPal but is growing more slowly and faces rising threats from Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , among others. Analysts have said an independent eBay would be a candidate for a buyout, and job cuts would help lower operating costs, a key metric for buyout firms. Operating costs companywide jumped 14% in this year’s first nine months to $6.4 billion, which is roughly half of total revenue.