Post by Dividavi on Jan 2, 2024 19:37:44 GMT
I got these articles from TechCrunch site. 2023 was a bad year for the high tech industry insofar as employee layoffs are concerned, particularly streaming service operations.
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Tidal is cutting 10% of its staff as parent company Block seeks to reduce headcount
Aisha Malik@aiishamalik1 / 11:15 PM GMT+7•December 7, 2023
link
Music streaming service Tidal is laying off more than 10% of its staff, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The move comes as Tidal’s parent company, Jack Dorsey’s Block, recently told investors in a letter that it plans to cap the number of people at the company at 12,000. The layoffs news was first reported by Bloomberg.
“As part of Block and its recent announcement to cap the number of employees at the company to focus on business growth, Tidal has carefully considered how to right-size our team to ensure we are able to continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business,” Tidal spokesperson Sade Ayodele told TechCrunch in an email. “We do not take these decisions lightly, and we are sincerely grateful for the contributions of our impacted teammates.”
Bloomberg reports that the cuts impact around 40 people at the music streaming company across various departments, including the curation team that builds playlists.
Block CFO Amrita Ahuja said during the company’s earnings call last month that it had just over 13,000 employees, and that it plans to reach its 12,000 cap by the end of 2024.
Tidal isn’t the only music streaming company to announce layoffs in the past week, as Spotify cut about 1,500 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce on Monday. Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the layoffs were conducted due to slow economic growth and rising capital costs.
Tidal’s layoffs are the latest cuts affecting the tech industry, which has faced a significant blow this year with job losses exceeding 240,000, a 50% increase from the previous year. Throughout the past year, tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, along with numerous startups, have announced significant staff cuts.
Aisha Malik@aiishamalik1 / 11:15 PM GMT+7•December 7, 2023
link
Music streaming service Tidal is laying off more than 10% of its staff, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The move comes as Tidal’s parent company, Jack Dorsey’s Block, recently told investors in a letter that it plans to cap the number of people at the company at 12,000. The layoffs news was first reported by Bloomberg.
“As part of Block and its recent announcement to cap the number of employees at the company to focus on business growth, Tidal has carefully considered how to right-size our team to ensure we are able to continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business,” Tidal spokesperson Sade Ayodele told TechCrunch in an email. “We do not take these decisions lightly, and we are sincerely grateful for the contributions of our impacted teammates.”
Bloomberg reports that the cuts impact around 40 people at the music streaming company across various departments, including the curation team that builds playlists.
Block CFO Amrita Ahuja said during the company’s earnings call last month that it had just over 13,000 employees, and that it plans to reach its 12,000 cap by the end of 2024.
Tidal isn’t the only music streaming company to announce layoffs in the past week, as Spotify cut about 1,500 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce on Monday. Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the layoffs were conducted due to slow economic growth and rising capital costs.
Tidal’s layoffs are the latest cuts affecting the tech industry, which has faced a significant blow this year with job losses exceeding 240,000, a 50% increase from the previous year. Throughout the past year, tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, along with numerous startups, have announced significant staff cuts.
Spotify cuts 17% jobs amid rising capital costs
Manish Singh@refsrc / 2:54 PM GMT+7•December 4, 2023
techcrunch.com/2023/12/03/spotify-cuts-17-jobs-amid-rising-capital-costs/
Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.”
In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
He cited the slow economic growth and rising capital costs among reasons for the job cuts, saying the firm took advantage of lower-cost capital in 2020 and 2021 to invest significantly in the business.
“I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us,” he wrote in the note, which the company later published on the blog.
Spotify employs about 8,800 people and will notify those impacted later in the day. The new wave of layoff follows Spotify cutting about 6% of jobs in June this year and another few hundred employees in January.
Spotify reported strong user growth with a notable rise in monthly active users as well as paid customers in the most recent quarter. It also exceeded Wall Street’s expectations on operating income, and its guidance for the fourth quarter suggests a continuation of this positive trend.
But despite overall strength in user and subscriber numbers, and management’s assertion that every region exceeded expectations, growth in North American premium subscribers was only modest quarter-over-quarter. There was also a slight year-over-year decline in third-quarter premium average revenue per user (ARPU), with fourth-quarter forecasts suggesting ongoing challenges due to shifts in geographical and product mix.
“I realize that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance. We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025,” wrote Ek.
“Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives.”
Industries globally have seen significant layoffs this year, totaling over 225,000 employees, driven by economic volatility, higher interest rates and evolving consumer patterns. The tech sector, including firms like Amazon, Google, Meta, Twitter and Netflix, faces notable cutbacks, amplifying economic unease among employees.
Manish Singh@refsrc / 2:54 PM GMT+7•December 4, 2023
techcrunch.com/2023/12/03/spotify-cuts-17-jobs-amid-rising-capital-costs/
Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.”
In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
He cited the slow economic growth and rising capital costs among reasons for the job cuts, saying the firm took advantage of lower-cost capital in 2020 and 2021 to invest significantly in the business.
“I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions. To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us,” he wrote in the note, which the company later published on the blog.
Spotify employs about 8,800 people and will notify those impacted later in the day. The new wave of layoff follows Spotify cutting about 6% of jobs in June this year and another few hundred employees in January.
Spotify reported strong user growth with a notable rise in monthly active users as well as paid customers in the most recent quarter. It also exceeded Wall Street’s expectations on operating income, and its guidance for the fourth quarter suggests a continuation of this positive trend.
But despite overall strength in user and subscriber numbers, and management’s assertion that every region exceeded expectations, growth in North American premium subscribers was only modest quarter-over-quarter. There was also a slight year-over-year decline in third-quarter premium average revenue per user (ARPU), with fourth-quarter forecasts suggesting ongoing challenges due to shifts in geographical and product mix.
“I realize that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance. We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025,” wrote Ek.
“Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives.”
Industries globally have seen significant layoffs this year, totaling over 225,000 employees, driven by economic volatility, higher interest rates and evolving consumer patterns. The tech sector, including firms like Amazon, Google, Meta, Twitter and Netflix, faces notable cutbacks, amplifying economic unease among employees.
