layoff

Amazon begins layoffs as economic woes mount • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 16, 2022Posted in Amazon, Hardware, layoff, LayoffsNo Comments

This week, Amazon began the process of cutting jobs across the company. Managers have begun informing employees that they have two months to find another role inside the company or accept severance, according to reports. Numerous employees have acknowledged that they were impacted by the moves via services like LinkedIn. Other reports, meanwhile, cite frustrations among the workforce that the company has not sent any companywide notifications to acknowledge the size and scope of the cuts. We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment. The news follows weeks of rumors around accelerating belt tightening led by CEO Andy Jassy. Following reports that the company was eyeing its devices division in particular, word arrived earlier this week that the company plans to lay off 10,000 – comprising roughly 3% of its corporate workforce. The figure would mark the largest “workforce reduction” ever undertaken by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant in its nearly 30-year history. Retail and human resources are also said to be impacted, along with the company’s cloud gaming service, Luna. The cuts come less than two months after Google pulled the plug on its competing service, Stadia. Last week, a spokesperson for the company told ZebethMedia, We remain excited about the future of our larger businesses, as well as newer initiatives like Prime Video, Alexa, Grocery, Kuiper, Zoox, and Healthcare. Our senior leadership team regularly reviews our investment outlook and financial performance, including as part of our annual operating plan review, which occurs in the fall each year. As part of this year’s review, we’re of course taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimize costs. The statement acknowledged what’s amounted to major financial headwinds for everyone from the smallest early-stage startup to the largest multinational corporation. Amazon’s devices division, which includes Echo Products, Fire Tablets and its Alexa business, was a prime candidate for the chopping block, given that it’s reportedly been operating at a $5 billion a year revenue loss. It’s been a long tail strategy to broader acceptance of its smart assistant, Alexa, but Jassy appears to be taking an especially close look at those divisions that require a lot of runaway. The company’s last mile delivery robot Scout was among the recent casualties in a broader consolidation of its robotics division. Amazon’s far from the only major tech corporation to make big cuts as it braces for economic headwinds. Last week, Meta laid off 11,000 — around 13% of the company’s entire workforce. Under the guidance of new CEO Elon Musk, Twitter has also begun laying off what could amount to thousands, while Salesforce and Stripe have grappled with their own restructuring. In addition to broader macro concerns, Amazon’s revenue has also begun to return to Earth following pandemic-fueled surges in online shopping.

The tide is shifting on tech’s layoff wave. Kind of. • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 26, 2022Posted in layoff, startup employees, Startups, tech layoffsNo Comments

In tech, emerging trends usually elicit excitement and surprise, whether it’s the hot new sector that every venture capitalist is clamoring for a stake in, or the rise of a new technology you haven’t heard of. Until you only hear of it. This year, however, one of the biggest trends to form inside tech was a darker one: layoffs. We can talk more about the specific layoff themes. And we have. Over 780 companies cut a portion of their staff off this year, according to data tracker layoffs.fyi. The workforce reductions have impacted at least 92,558 known people. The real figure is likely higher given reporting delays. But the same data source suggests that the tide is somewhat shifting on the cadence of tech layoffs. Nearly 70% of people who have been laid off this year, lost their jobs during May, June, July and August. Since the summertime of sadness, staff cuts have decreased. September had half the number of layoff events than August, and in October, new layoff events slowed while people impacted slightly inched upward from August. There’s two big asterisks to these figures. First, layoffs.fyi has only tracked publicly reported and tipped layoff events, meaning that there could be many more underneath the surface (especially smaller scale layoffs) that are not being tracked. Second, zombies. Zombie companies are basically companies that raised a ton of money over the boom cycle but aren’t producing nearly enough revenue to justify the historical valuation. The late-stage market is full of them, a founder recently told me, and it will take awhile for us to realize this because many got overcapitalized and have enough runway to hide behind. In other words, more layoffs may come later once companies run out of runway. Today’s numbers just give us a time check on just how far into this re-correction we are. Needless to say, layoffs haven’t disappeared. Just today, Zillow announced that it was cutting 5% of its total workforce, impacting 300 employees. Yesterday, Cerebral cut 20% of its employees. Some of the biggest layoffs since the beginning of COVID-19’s impact on the technology sector happened this year, with Getir’s 14% cut, Byju’s fall from grace, and Better.com’s worsening situation. Still, I’m relieved (and maybe you are too) that the layoffs are slowing down. I don’t want to jinx things, and I realize this is totally jinxing things; but hopefully 2022 ends quiet, and 2023 starts even quieter.

SurveyMonkey parent Momentive Global lays off 11% of workforce • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 14, 2022Posted in Enterprise, layoff, SurveyMonkeyNo Comments

Momentive Global, the parent of the web-survey portal SurveyMonkey, laid off 11% of its workforce this week. Multiple people across divisions — including those handling the business development, customer support, recruitment and sales at the San Mateo, California-headquartered company — have been impacted, ZebethMedia has learned and confirmed. “In an 8-K filed on October 13, we announced plans to reduce our headcount by 11%. We are undertaking this difficult change as part of a strategic shift as we streamline our focus and align our resources to our top priorities,” Hillary Wilson, senior communications manager at Momentive, said in a statement emailed to ZebethMedia. The company has also created an online spreadsheet that lists affected employees who have agreed to share their contact information for getting new jobs. In the 8-K filing, Momentive described its layoff as part of a restructuring plan to “improve operating margin and create efficiencies”. The company said that it would incur between $4 million and $5 million in charges, which includes employee severance, employee benefits and related facilitation costs. “We expect that the majority of these costs will be incurred and paid during the fourth quarter of 2022 and that execution of the restructuring plan, including cash payments, will be substantially complete by the end of fiscal 2022,” the company said in its filing. It also noted that the process, which is impacting its global workforce, might extend into the first quarter or 2023 or beyond in certain countries. The company said in the filing that it expects to have made between $119.5 million and $122.5 million in sales for the quarter that ended September 30, with a non-GAAP operating margin between 5-7%, both within previous guidance. In February, software company Zendesk terminated its proposed $4.1 billion transaction to acquire Momentive after Zendesk’s stockholders rejected the acquisition. The all-stock deal was announced in October last year. Shortly after its deal with Zendesk broke off, Momentive announced a $200 million share repurchase program to regain the confidence of its shareholders. At the time, it did not explicitly confirm whether it would continue to seek a buyer or plan to go solo. “The setbacks we’ve faced are transient. We compete in a massive market and we maintain a valuable portfolio of products that address specific challenges our customers face, in small and large companies alike. Our sales-assisted business is strong, and our team is committed and inspired to drive value for our customers and shareholders,” Zander Lurie, chief executive officer of Momentive, said at the time. Since then, the company’s share price has dropped more than 63%, from $15.72 to $5.66 on Friday. Momentive is not the only tech company to shed employees in this layoff season. Companies including Netflix, Noom, Spotify and Tencent have taken similar moves in recent weeks and months due to ongoing economic challenges and projected business instability. Similarly, Indian startups including Byju’s and Ola have laid off hundreds of employees. Tech giants including Meta have also paused hiring to reduce their operational costs, while others appear to be turning to contractors to offset that pause.