eBay to shut down Israel R&D center

US e-commerce giant eBay is meeting with its employees in Netanya inform them it is shutting down its R&D center, after twenty years of activity in Israel. Nearly 200 employees will lose their job as part of the move, after the company has already implemented several waves of layoffs that mainly affected marketing and sales activities in Israel. Now software development activity is being axed, considered closer to the company’s core business.

eBay’s loyalty to its activities in Israel was also tested after the outbreak of the war, when in June 2024 about 40 employees were laid off. At the time, the company claimed that this was an “a streamlining measure adapting to the company’s customers,” but that the R&D center in Israel was still “an integral part of eBay’s ability to realize its product strategy.”

But today eBay says, “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close our office in Israel during the first quarter of 2026. We are committed to continuing to provide support and accompany our employees throughout the transition process. As a global company, eBay is continuously evaluating its operating model in line with its long-term strategic goals, and in order to optimize support for customers and employees.”

Experiencing growth – but far from the profitability demonstrated in the past

eBay has been shrinking and undertaking damage control in recent years. Reports in the US say eBay also plans to close its New York offices, which is based on the acquisition of TCGplayer, a company that trades playing cards, and transfer operations to eBay’s offices in Kentucky. The operations in New York have about 220 unionized employees with collective agreements.

eBay is facing stiff competition from Amazon and Walmart, and Chinese companies such as Temu and Shein, which have weakened slightly recently after the cancellation of the duty exemption on imports of discounted products from China to the US.

Despite this, eBay has actually experienced growth over the past year, both in its share price, which has risen 33% over the year, and in the number of users, which has resumed growth. In the first quarter of 2022, eBay had 138 million users, subsequently dropping to 131 million. But as of the end of March 2025, the number had grown to 134 million. However, the company is still far from the great profitability demonstrated during the Covid years – its profits then contracted tenfold and have not grown significantly since then.

The company, currently headed by eBay Israel general manager Amir di-Nur, began operations in Israel with the acquisition of the startup Shopping.com in 2005 for $620 million, and at its peak, it employed about 350 employees in the Netanya center. The current wave of layoffs and the closure of the Israel center is the fourth wave of dismissals here in two years. In 2023, eBay laid off 30 employees in Israel, at the beginning of 2024 another 20 employees were laid off, and in June last year 40 employees. At that time, 50 employees remained, and since then, an additional 50 employees have apparently left. According to LinkedIn, the company currently employs over 190 people in Israel.

In an extensive article on the state of the development center published last year, many employees expressed concern about the closure of operations in Israel due to the war and eBay’s weakening against its rival Amazon. eBay’s situation has actually improved, but the war remains.

eBay has beaten Amazon’s share price rise the past year – its stock rose by 33% compared to Amazon’s share price, which rose by only 14%, but it was lower than Walmart with 50% rise and Shopify with 87%.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 28, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.