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Journalism of Courage
When every major tech company was announcing layoffs, Apple gained the appreciation of many for avoiding the situation altogether. However, not even Apple is immune to the economic downturn.
According to a fresh report, the Cupertino-based company is now also eliminating a few roles. Apple isn’t the only company seeing layoffs recently though – it’s also joined by EA, Kyndryl, and others. We take a look at the major sackings this week and the last here.
A Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter revealed that Apple is eliminating a small number of roles within its corporate retail teams. It’s not clear how many people will be affected but the report does say that the number is “likely very small.”
Still, while Apple has finally given in and has joined the likes of Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, its layoffs are far fewer in number compared to these companies, which have each announced tens of thousands of job cuts. So far, the company managed to avoid layoffs by laying off contractors, delaying bonuses, reducing travel budgets, and pushing back projects instead.
Amazon on Tuesday announced it’s laying off roughly 100 employees across its video games division. The layoffs included employees in the Game Growth group, Amazon’s San Diego gaming studio, and Prime Gaming, an offering targeted at members of Amazon’s Prime subscription. Some staffers have also been reassigned to other projects “that match our strategic focus,” said Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games.
“There is never a pleasant way to share this sort of news, but we are committed to treating our impacted employees with empathy and respect, and will support them by offering them severance pay, health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and paid time to conduct their job search,” he added.
EA, the popular video game company behind titles like Apex Legends and Need for Speed, has announced it’s laying off around 6% of its workforce. The company had around 13,000 employees last year, and a 6% cut translates to around 780 jobs.
EA Ceo Andrew Wilson stated in a blog post that the company is “moving away from projects that do not contribute to our strategy, reviewing our real estate footprint, and restructuring some of our teams.” The company is also giving the affected employees opportunities to move on to other projects.
Edtech unicorn Unacademy announced it’s cutting 12% of jobs, with the company’s co-founder Gaurav Munjal writing to his employees in a message that the step is being taken to reduce costs and achieve profitability. Unacademy had already reduced its headcount by 1,350 through multiple downsizing rounds in 2022. The company had also cancelled appraisals for FY 2022-23.
In his note, Munjal stated: “Today, the global economy is enduring a recession, funding is scarce, and running a profitable business is key. We have to adapt to these changes, and build and operate in a much leaner manner so we can truly create value for our users and shareholders.”
IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl, a spinoff of IBM announced late last week that it’s laying off an unspecified number of employees globally. The company, which was spun out of IBM in late 2021, has around 90,000 employees. With this announcement, it joins IBM, which also announced 3,900 layoffs back in January.
“We are eliminating some roles globally — a small percentage — to become more efficient and competitive. This is in addition to the ongoing transformation work we have undertaken to streamline and simplify our processes and systems,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
These actions will “enable us to focus our investments in areas that directly benefit our customers and position Kyndryl for profitable growth,” the spokesperson added.
Google in January announced 12,000 layoffs, implying in an email sent out by Sundar Pichai that they may have overhired. Now, the company’s finance chief, Ruth Porat, said in an email that cuts will be made to employee services. These include cuts on free snacks, fitness classes, staplers, tape, and the frequency of laptop replacements for employees.
Porat added that one of the company’s main objectives for 2023 is to “deliver durable savings through improved velocity and efficiency.” The memo also notified employees that perks will now vary based on the needs of each office.
Disney CEO Bob Iger on March 27 announced that his company will begin laying off staff starting the same week. This followed the company’s announcement in February where it said it would axe 7,000 jobs. Disney had about 220,000 workers as of October 1, so 7,000 sackings represent about 3% of its workforce.
“The difficult reality of many colleagues and friends leaving Disney is not something we take lightly,” Iger said in the memo. “In tough moments, we must always do what is required to ensure Disney can continue delivering exceptional entertainment to audiences and guests around the world – now, and long into the future.”
On March 30, Roku announced a second round of layoffs where it’s letting go of 6% of its workforce – or around 200 employees. The company said that the decision is part of a larger plan to cut down on year-on-year operating expense growth and prioritise projects that it believes will have a return on investment.
Last week, Lucid, the EV startup that competes with Tesla, announced it’s laying off 18% of its workforce, or 1,300 employees, within the next few months. An email from CEO Peter Rawlinson that was attached to a regulatory filing stated that the cuts will affect employees and contractors across “nearly every organization and level, including executives.”
