Alan Lewis, in the past responsbile for the eBay Desktop tool made many good observations on his blog  For example he states "When walking the halls at headquarters, you used to see cubicles decked out with stuff bought on eBay. Not anymore." and "Where has the eBay spirit gone? The biggest single cause is that eBay has, over the last few years, increasingly relied on outsourced developers (who rotate into San Jose on shifts) and H1B employees. These are good people, but because of the temporary nature of their work at eBay there is less reason to become emotionally involved in the company. There is also no effort to instill eBay culture into the employee base (including contractors and outsourced workers). For too many at eBay, working there is just a job."  For more read his post called The eBay Article you must read.