E-commerce conglomerate eBay announced on Tuesday that it’s laying off 500 employees around the world, which comes to about 4% of its workforce. The layoffs include several dozens of Israeli employees at the eBay R&D center in Netanya.
Jamie Iannone, Chief Executive Officer of eBay, issued a message to employees, saying: “Importantly, this shift gives us additional space to invest and create new roles in high-potential areas — new technologies, customer innovations, and key markets — and to continue to adapt and flex with the changing macro, e-commerce, and technology landscape.”
Not sure it was a comforting message to his laid-off employees, who will enjoy an opportunity to adapt to innovations like paying the rent without a job.
The eBay move followed a long string of layoffs in Israel’s hi-tech market which, sadly, can’t be blamed on the new government’s judicial reform. Calcalist published the complete list of hi-tech layoffs in Israel. Here are the most recent ones:
Feb. 6, 2023: Fintech startup TenureX shut down. The company raised $5 million and employed 20 people until it was hit hard by the economic downturn.
Feb. 5, 2023: Lightico laid off 20 out of its 80 employees, after firing another 20 in March 2022.
Feb. 2, 2023: Cyren (cybersecurity) laid off its entire workforce of 121 employees “in response to current market conditions and associated challenges with raising additional capital.”
Jan. 30, 2023: AU10TIX, which develops identity verification and management automation tools, laid off 19 employees, or 9% of its workforce.
Jan. 25, 2023: Gambling group 888 laid off dozens of employees. It once employed 590.
The list is devastatingly long, stretching back to June 1, 2022, when Cybereason laid off 100 employees in Israel, the US, and Europe.
