It is cut-throat in the eCommerce space right now, and one of the earlier movers into the space is feeling headwinds. Succumbing to the pressure and the company’s inability to come up with something that keeps its floating in this Amazon-dominated space, eBay has announced that it would undergo further restructuring. This will be done after reaching an agreement with investors Elliott Management and Starboard Value. This comes after the company announced that they would reorganize their regional units and reconstitute them into one global team in a bid to improve their stock and please investors.
The company has stated that they were appointing two new directors to the board and paving the way to potentially carving off some of its businesses.These new board members include Jesse Cohn from Elliott Management and Matt Murphy from Marvell Technology, as the company begins to shift its focus. eBay also stated their intentions of hiring a third independent director.
eBay currently hires over 14,000+ employees and the restructure would mean a further layover of an estimate of over 400 employees .
The company came under fire from chief investors Elliot and Starboard as it continues to loose more ground in the ecommerce market. Elliott disclosed that it had invested $1.4bn for a 4 per cent take in January, while Starboard holds less than 4 per cent. Elliott Management proposed a plan to improve eBay’s revenue earlier. The plan included eBay to consider alternate options or the sale of ticket reseller StubHub and the eBay Classified Group
The company is now looking to increase revenue from its new payments business and by selling more advertising on the site.
“Over the course of the last two months, we’ve met with a number of shareholders to understand their views,” Mr Wenig, chief executive at eBay said. “The bottom line is that we all share common ground: we see tremendous opportunity ahead and want to see eBay’s full potential realised over the long term. The initiatives we are announcing today are the result of this constructive dialogue.”
Ebay also mentioned that they would begin a review into the operations of its business and disclose the results at a fall event later in the year.
