San Jose-based eBay eliminating nearly 300 Bay Area jobs

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Online marketplace giant eBay is cutting hundreds of employees from its Bay Area workforce, many of whom work at the company's global headquarters in San Jose.

According to filings with the Employment Development Department, obtained by ABC7's media partner, the Bay Area News Group, eBay has plans to cut nearly 300 Bay Area employees by the end of the week.

Analysts say although the loss of jobs can be sobering, the Silicon Valley economy is stronger than it has ever been.

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"The hope is that those employees who were affected, will be able to be reabsorbed back into the Silicon Valley ecosystem that has a record unemployment rate of 2.8%," said Matthew Mahood, president and CEO of The Silicon Valley Organization, the region's chamber of commerce.

An eBay spokesperson told ABC7 News that all affected employees were notified at the end of June. The layoffs come as the company is trying to shift its focus, and align its workforce with new initiatives, including a recent push to re-brand the platform as a place for shoppers to discover new products.

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According to Fortune Magazine, while the company's revenue was up to $9.6 billion last year, from $9 billion in the prior year, it took a loss of $1 billion.

"The competition has gone up, and now, you have lots of places online that you can get stuff from," said Kirthi Kalyanam, director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University. "Part of the challenge for eBay is that it has not evolved into what the next generation of e-commerce should be."

eBay estimated that it would cut 224 jobs in San Jose, 41 in San Francisco and five in Brisbane.