eBay announced today that the company will buy the Bill Me Later payment system for as well as Danish web sites, dba.dk and bilbasen.dk and will layoff 10% percent of their workforce.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY – News) today announced two acquisitions that significantly extend the company’s leadership position in online payments and classifieds. In payments, the company is acquiring the U.S.-based online payments business Bill Me Later® for approximately $820 million in cash and approximately $125 million in outstanding options. In classifieds, the company has acquired Denmark’s leading online classifieds site dba.dk and vehicles site bilbasen.dk for approximately $390 million in cash.
The company also announced plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 10 percent, affecting about 1,000 employees in addition to several hundred temporary workers and the reduction of open positions. The global reduction is intended to simplify and streamline eBay’s organization, improve the company’s cost structure and strengthen the overall competitiveness of the company’s existing businesse
eBay continues it’s quest for world-domination in online payments. Wonder if there’s a coincidence between the layoffs and acquisitions or is eBay using the weakening U.S. economy as a scapegoat. And why buy a classified site from Denmark? Wonder if eBay will announce later that they shouldn’t have bought the sites like they did with Skype.