Online auction site eBay Inc.'s [EBAY] hunt for long-term growth appears to be coming from expansion as well as contraction.

The company Monday announced two deals worth more than $1.3 billion to bolster its presence in online payments and classifieds, two areas which have grown for eBay despite the current economic climate.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay will pay $820 million in cash and $125 million in options for Web payments business Bill Me Later and $390 million for Danish classifieds providers Den Bla Avis and BilBasen, which run dba.dk and bilbasen.dk respectively, the company said.

Ebay also said it would reduce its workforce by 10% by cutting 1,000 full-time and hundreds of temporary jobs and eliminating some open positions. As a result, eBay expects pretax restructuring charges of $70 million to $80 million, taken primarily in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments to competitively position our company for long-term growth," John Donahoe, eBay's president and chief executive, said in the statement, adding that Timonium, Md.-based Bill Me Later "belongs" with eBay payment site PayPal.

For the full story, visit TheDeal.com