A PayPal spokesman told Dice News that despite rumors of impending layoffs, there have been no discussions within the company about how plans for revamping product development processes could affect existing jobs. Late last week, Bloomberg reported that the company might lay off between 300 and 400 employees in order to better face competition from established players like Google Checkout and Bitcoin as well as startups like Strip. The cuts will take place in the next few weeks, it said. If cuts in fact occur, they would equal about 3 percent of the company’s employees. Bloomberg says they'd primarily hit the eBay unit’s product and technology groups. Given CEO David Marcus’s vows to shake things up at the online-payment granddaddy, the move may not have been entirely unexpected. When chief executives start talking about shaking things up, layoffs are often part of their equation.
Asked about the reports, a PayPal spokesperson told Dice News that while "plans (are) underway to strengthen and simplify" how the company's products are created, "we have not yet discussed how these plans may impact any existing jobs across our product, technology and marketing teams. Any changes will be communicated to our employees first, not to media. We will not comment on rumors or speculation."
In an interview Tuesday, Bill Scott, PayPal’s senior director of UI engineering, declined to comment on the rumors. "I'm still hiring," he said. "I'm always looking for top talent." However, Scott didn't provide any number of IT positions still open. A host of startups as well as big credit card companies are focused on giving PayPal a run for its money. Marcus, who took over in April, began reorganizing the company in June by consolidating nine product groups into one. In selecting Marcus for the job, eBay CEO John Donahoe said he wanted to add “startup energy” to the unit. 