EBay buys payment firm for almost $1B, lays off over 1,000

06.10.2008
EBay announced two acquisitions Monday, at the same time saying it will lay off over 1,000 staff worldwide and cut back on recruitment.

It will pay almost US$1 billion for U.S. online payment company Bill Me Later, and around $390 million in cash for the operator of two Danish classifieds sites, dba.dk and bilbasen.dk.

Bill Me Later is second only to PayPal, the online payment operator that eBay already owns, the company said. The two services complement one another, with Bill Me Later able to offer delayed payment or financing options to eBay customers using PayPal, it said.

EBay will pay $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding stock options. It expects to close the deal by the end of the year.

The Danish classifieds sites, one linked to newspaper Den Blå Avis and one for automobile buyers, will bring eBay an additional 186 million monthly page views, the company said. It now owns classifieds sites covering 1,000 cities in 20 countries.

Alongside these acquisitions, the company said it will lay off 1,000 staff and several hundred temporary workers. The worldwide layoffs will allow the company to cut costs, it said, although they will result in restructuring charges of up to $80 million [M] in the fourth quarter.