Amazon’s Audible is shedding 5% of its workforce, marking one other spherical of job cuts in tech

Amazon-owned on-line audiobook and podcast service Audible is shedding about 5% of its workforce, marking the third spherical of job cuts on the e-commerce large’s companies this week because the expertise trade continues to shed roles within the new yr.

In a memo despatched to staff Thursday, Audible CEO Bob Carrigan stated the corporate is in good condition, however faces an “more and more difficult panorama.” “We didn’t take this route with out appreciable thought,” Carrigan stated. “However getting leaner and extra environment friendly is the best way we might want to function now — and within the foreseeable future — as a way to proceed delivering best-in-class audio storytelling to our clients all over the world.” A spokesperson for Audible declined to offer the variety of staff who will probably be affected by the cuts.

The layoffs at Audible comply with others introduced this week in Amazon’s Prime Video and MGM Studios unit, which is trimming lots of of staff from its payroll because it cuts again in areas that aren’t delivering. Earlier this week, Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch additionally stated it was reducing greater than 500 jobs in a bid to avoid wasting on prices and grow to be extra worthwhile.

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Audible was bought by Seattle-based Amazon in 2008 for roughly $300 million and is each a high distributor and producer of audio books, meditation applications and podcasts. The service is dominant within the audiobook market and has sought to drag in additional clients by means of unique content material and high-profile offers, together with a multiyear settlement it inked with Greater Floor Productions, a manufacturing firm based by former President Barack Obama and his spouse, Michelle.

Tech corporations like Amazon ramped up hiring throughout the pandemic, however they started reducing prices as inflation and rates of interest spiked and their focus turned to profitability.

The latest job cuts follows mass layoffs that started at Amazon in late 2022 and have impacted greater than 27,000 staff.

Additionally on Thursday, a spokesperson for Discord confirmed that the social media firm is shedding 17% of its employees – or 170 staff – in what it characterised as a transfer to carry extra agility to its workforce after a pandemic-induced surge in hiring.

Different tech corporations — together with Google, IT firm Xerox and online game software program supplier Unity Software program — have additionally introduced layoffs in latest days, signaling the trade’s job shedding is way from over.