EBay Cuts More Than 1000 Jobs, Acquires Bill Me Later
More than 1,000 permanent eBay.com employees and several temporary workers will start searching new jobs as the Internet company reduced its work force with 10 percent.

As expected, the layoffs came amid concerns caused by the potential economic impact of a slowdown in ecommerce. The company plans to spend about $1.3 billion on acquisitions and try to fight the weakening United States economy.

EBay shares fell 8 percent on Monday which is their lowest level in five years. The reduction of the work force with about 10 percent is expected to bring restructuring charges worth $70 million to $80 million.

On Monday, the company said it will purchase online payments company Bill Me Later for $945 million (about $820 million in cash and $125 million in options). The company will be combined with PayPal and generate about $150 million in revenue in 2009.

“We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments to competitively position our company for long-term growth,” John J. Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, said.

Another eBay.com acquisition involves the well-known Danish classified advertising sites DBA.dk and BilBasen for $390 million.

EBay said it expects its third quarter revenue to hit the low end of its forecast of $2.1 billion to $2.15 billion. However, the company expects the price of its shares to exceed the high end of its earnings forecast range of 39 cents to 41 cents per share.

"We're anticipating a competitive fourth-quarter holiday season," Donahoe said for CNBC. "We think consumers will be hunting for those deals."