On October 21, Reuters reported an internal memo in which eBay CEO Jamie Iannone told staff the company will lay off about 9% of its workforce. An eBay spokesperson confirmed the cuts. It is the second round this year. In February eBay cut about 800 people, roughly 6%, per Reuters via Yahoo Finance. Affected staff will be told “in the coming days.”
The memo’s stated logic is to simplify operations and move resources toward the fastest-growing areas. The Reuters piece quotes it saying that capturing the opportunity ahead “requires us to make thoughtful choices about where we focus and invest.” Neither the memo as reported nor the spokesperson mentions AI. We write it that way.
The numbers, and the one we cannot pin down
Reuters gives the percentage and nothing else on size. IBTimes UK puts it at around 1,000 jobs and says eBay had roughly 12,300 employees at the end of 2025. Nine percent of 12,300 is about 1,100, so the two are consistent, but the 1,000 is one outlet’s figure and eBay has not published a count. No team or function was named. No restructuring charge, severance terms or effective dates were reported.
Add the February round and the year’s total comes to about 1,800 people on our arithmetic, around 15% of the end-2025 base. That sum is ours, not a company figure, and the two percentages are measured against different bases.
A business the stock likes
This is not a distress cut. Reuters notes eBay shares are up nearly 40% this year against about 12% for the S&P 500, and CNBC-sourced reports had the stock up about 1% on the news. Iannone’s framing, per IBTimes, is that the strategy is working. eBay reports third-quarter results next week; IBTimes dates it October 28, which we could not confirm from eBay.
It is also a company that spent money on growth this summer. As we covered in the Etsy piece, eBay completed its purchase of Depop from Etsy in July for $1.2B. Buying a marketplace in July and cutting 9% of staff in October is a portfolio being reshaped, not shrunk, though the memo does not say Depop is involved.
Against the other cuts that name nothing
Etsy cut 220 in August and its CEO ruled out both cost and AI as reasons. Netflix told staff in October that about 1,000 roles, 6% of a 16,000 base, were going, also without AI in the text. NAB’s 2,500 on October 20 was 6% of staff with a A$300M charge and, again, no AI. eBay’s 9% is the biggest share of the three non-Etsy cases, and the only one that comes as a repeat.
The contrast case is Meta’s third quarter, where headcount fell 15% to 66,775 while revenue rose 26%, and capex rose with it. Meta’s numbers let a reader see the substitution of capital for people. eBay’s memo gives no such disclosure, so the AI question stays open rather than answered.
Back in April we noted a customer support manager laid off by Block who found eBay and Pinterest trimming the same roles at the same time. That was an anecdote then. Two rounds in eight months is the pattern showing up in eBay’s own numbers.
The career read
The exposed layer is whatever sits between the listing and the buyer and is not engineering for the growth areas: marketplace operations, trust and safety, seller and buyer support, and the internal teams that coordinate across product lines. That list is our inference. eBay named no function, so treat it as where marketplaces have cut before, not as a disclosed target.
The calendar is short. Notices go out within days. Third-quarter results next week are the first chance to see a charge, a savings figure, or any mention of AI in the explanation. Three things to watch: whether a restructuring charge appears, whether management links the cuts to automation on the call, and whether a third round follows. If the charge arrives and AI stays out of the script, this reads as portfolio and cost reshaping at a company that is doing well, and readers in marketplace roles should plan around repeat rounds, not one.
