Zoom Lays Off 1,300 Workers; eBay Cuts 500

SAN JOSE, CA — The wave of layoffs that has rocked the tech world in recent months came to San Jose on Tuesday, when both Zoom and eBay disclosed hundreds of job cuts.

Zoom will eliminate about 1,300 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, while eBay will cut around 500, or 4 percent. Both companies are headquartered in San Jose.

In a message to employees filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan cited global economic uncertainty, after the coronavirus pandemic and rise of remote work proved a boon in recent years to the video conferencing platform.

“Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I am proud of the way we mobilized as a company to keep people connected,” Yuan said. “To make this possible, we needed to staff up rapidly to support the quick rise of users on our platform and their evolving needs.”

The company tripled in size over the course of 24 months, according to Yuan.

“We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users,” he said. “But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.”

Yuan announced plans to cut his salary by 98 percent and forego a 2023 corporate bonus. Executive leaders at the company will see a 20 percent base salary cut and forfeit their bonuses as well.

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone also took into account the global economic landscape in her message to employees about the layoffs, which was filed with the SEC. The cuts are intended to allow the company simplify its structure and to invest and create new roles in specific areas, she said.

“Today’s actions are designed to strengthen our ability to deliver better end-to-end experiences for our customers and to support more innovation and scale across our platform,” Iannone said.

The cuts at Zoom and eBay are the latest in the ongoing barrage of layoffs across the tech sector. Dell announced 6,600 layoffs Monday and the tech industry saw around 50,000 job cuts in January alone, including 18,000 at Amazon; 12,000 at Google; and 10,000 at Microsoft. The mass cuts began in late 2022, when Twitter and Meta each laid off thousands of workers.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.