In its first business play after splitting from PayPal on Friday, eBay has acquired part of a used clothing e-retailer to bolster its online consignment business.
eBay will buy the core technology from Twice, a San Francisco Web company that sells used clothing mailed to them, and splits the proceeds with consumer-sellers. eBay will also hire 10 engineers and technical experts from Twice, including the two co-founders, who started the company in 2012, an eBay spokesman said.
The remaining 30 full-time employees and 200 part-time employees have lost their jobs as a result of this acquisition, the spokesman said. They have been offered severance packages from Twice. eBay declined to disclose how much they were paying in the deal.
The remainder of Twice s operations — its warehouses for receiving and shipping clothes, website and customer service operations — will shut down. , and is offering 30 percent off purchases through Wednesday.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.
eBay plans to use Twice s technology to help power its new service, eBay Valet, which allows people to send collectibles, electronics other items to third-party merchants to sell for them. Last month, eBay Valet jumped into clothing — Twice s main focus. Twice s technology will help improve eBay s logistics in collecting items to sell, listing and pricing them on the site, and shipping them out to buyers. Twice had offered a fairly seamless system where customers who wanted to sell clothes could download a prepaid shipping label on the website, package their items and ship them to one of Twice s warehouses.
Twice raised $23 million from investors.
The acquisition dovetails with the agenda laid out by new eBay CEO Devin Wenig, that, after PayPal s spinoff Friday, he wanted to return the company s focus to recruiting and retaining more small sellers, and growing eBay s consignment offerings.
We re not limiting ourselves, Wenig said. But I don t feel the need to try to do all things for all people.
eBay has done a bunch of housekeeping in that effort, selling its Enterprise unit last week for $925 million and selling back shares of Craigslist it had owned for years.
On a conference call with investors to discuss eBay s first-quarter earnings, Wenig said: An estimated $100 billion of value is trapped in people s closets and garages, and that s just in the US. This is an enormous opportunity.
eBay stock is up 6.6 percent since opening bell Monday.
Photo: The sign at eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. is photographed on Friday, April 19, 2013. By Gary Reyes/ Bay Area News Group.
