EBay, the online auction website, said today that it was cutting 10 per cent of its global workforce in response to slowing growth in its internet sales and was buying an online payment service.

The layoffs will affect 1,000 employees and several hundred temporary workers worldwide. There are around 100 eBay employees in the UK. An eBay UK spokesman said that “some people’s roles are at risk of redundancy” but could not say how many jobs or which departments are most at risk.

In July, the California-based group reported its slowest sales growth since 1998 when it started selling shares to the public. In today’s announcement, eBay gave warning that while its third-quarter profits would exceed its forecasts, revenue would be at the “low end” of its predictions.

“While never an easy decision to make, these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth,” said John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive.

The job cuts will cost eBay between $70 million (£39.9 million) and $80 million pre-tax, most of which will be recorded in the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter, eBay expects to hit the bottom end of its revenue forecast of between $2.1 billion and $2.15 billion and exceed the top end of its earnings forecast of between 39 cents and 41 cents per share, before items.

Shares in eBay fell by nearly 7 per cent to $17.63.

EBay said it will acquire Bill Me Later, an online payment service, for $945 million in cash and outstanding options. The company also announced that it would buy Danish online classifieds businesses Den Bla Avis and BilBasen for about $390 million.

Analysts said today’s moves reflected eBay’s attempts to shift the focus of its business away from its core market, which has been growing only in single digits in recent years, towards more profitable businesses, such as classified advertisements and Paypal, its online payments arm.

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