Amazon is laying off 5 per cent of its workforce at Audible. The news comes a day after the e-commerce giant said it would lay off hundreds of employees in its streaming and studio business, Reuters reported.
“I want you to know that we’re making these decisions to strengthen our business for the long term,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan wrote in the memo, according to a Business Insider report. “We did not take this route without considerable thought. But getting leaner and more efficient is the way we will need to operate now -- and in the foreseeable future -- in order to continue delivering best-in-class audio storytelling to our customers around the world,” Carrigan wrote.
Amazon acquired Audible in 2008, for about $300 million. The app with audio books, has over 850,000 titles. Amazon, in the last year, cut 27,000 jobs. As did several other tech companies after the companies hired heavily during the pandemic. Earlier this week, Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch also said it was cutting more than 500 jobs in a bid to save on costs and become more profitable.
Alphabet, Google's parent company on Wednesday, said it was laying off hundreds of employees across multiple teams. Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of the division, in an email, wrote, that the reason for the reduction is to "reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact", TechCrunch reported.
