TIG Post

Tag: Silicon Valley

  • Amazon to layoff 18,000 jobs as it cuts costs

    Amazon to layoff 18,000 jobs as it cuts costs

    Amazon intends to cut more than 18,000 jobs, the most in the company’s history, in a bid to cut costs.

    The online retailer, which employs 1.5 million people worldwide, did not specify which countries would be affected, but noted that Europe would not be left out.

    The majority of the job losses will be in its consumer retail and human resources divisions.

    Andy Jassy, the company’s CEO, blamed the layoffs on the “uncertain economy,” saying the company had “hired rapidly over several years.”

    “We don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted,” he said in a memo to staff.

    He said the announcement had been brought forward due to one of the firm’s employees leaking the cuts externally.

    “Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year,” he added.

    Amazon’s sales have slowed after a surge during the pandemic, when customers bored at home spent a lot of time online.

    A potent combination of a downturn in advertising revenues due to businesses seeking to save cash and consumers spending less as the cost of living crisis bites is hitting tech firms hard.

    Other major tech companies, such as Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and cloud-based business software firm Salesforce, have recently announced significant layoffs.

    Amazon has already announced that it’s cutting back on projects like the Echo (better known as Alexa) and delivery robots – which were nice-to-haves but not actually making money.

    Anecdotally, there’s a tendency in Silicon Valley for firms to hire and retain talented workers on attractive salaries, even if they’re not immediately needed, primarily in order to stop them working for rivals. This culture is a luxury that big tech can no longer afford to maintain.

    Amazon employees affected by the cuts are expected to be informed by January 18.

    The move comes after the technology giant said last year that it would reduce its headcount without saying how many jobs would be cut.

    A potent combination of a downturn in advertising revenues due to businesses seeking to save cash, and consumers spending less as the cost of living crisis bites, is hitting tech firms hard.

    ‘More pain ahead’

    The company had already stopped hiring new staff and stopped some of its warehouse expansions, warning it had over-hired during the pandemic.

    It has also taken steps to shut some parts of its business, cancelling projects such as a personal delivery robot.

    “Prior to the pandemic, tech companies would often remove only the bottom 1% to 3% of their workforce,” Ray Wang from the Silicon Valley-based consultancy Constellation Research told the BBC.

    Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities said he believes Amazon will face “more pain ahead” as customers tighten their belts.

    Industry-wide cuts

    Tens of thousands of jobs are being shed across the global technology industry, amid slowing sales and growing concerns about an economic downturn.

    In November,

    Facebook owner Meta announced that it would cut 13% of its workforce.

    The first mass lay-offs in the social media firm’s history will result in 11,000 employees, from a worldwide headcount of 87,000, losing their jobs.

    Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were “the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history”.

    The news followed major layoffs at Twitter, which cut about half its staff after multi-billionaire Elon Musk bought the firm in October.

    Amazon started laying off staff as early as November, according to LinkedIn posts by workers who said they had been impacted by job cuts.

    Posts seen by the BBC included those from employees in Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant business, Luna cloud gaming platform division, and Lab – the operation behind the Kindle e-reader.

    Source: BBC.com

  • Airbnb CEO on the tech downturn: ‘It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on’

    After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, the tech industry is now facing the “ultimate reality check” as it confronts broader economic uncertainty and waves of layoffs, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNN on Thursday.

    “It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on,” Chesky said in an interview on “CNN This Morning.” After a period of “exuberance and euphoria,” he added, “now we all have to, like, take a hard look at things.”

    Silicon Valley’s greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it.

    His remarks come at a difficult moment for the tech industry. Facebook-parent Meta said last week it was cutting 11,000 jobs after nearly doubling its staff during the pandemic. Amazon confirmed this week that lay offs had begun in its corporate workforce, with reports saying it plans to cut 10,000 positions. And Twitter recently cut approximately 50% of its staff as new owner Elon Musk races to bolster its bottom line.

    Airbnb may be an exception. Chesky said the company is not undergoing layoffs at this time, and in fact is hiring. But that is due in large part to the company cutting 25% of its staff at the start of the pandemic as the travel industry was clobbered, and losing more employees by attrition after.

    “Two-and-a-half years ago, we lost 80% of our business in eight weeks,” Chesky said. “People were predicting we were going to go out of business.”

    “We just hunkered down,” he added. “We rebuilt the company from the ground up, and we stayed really lean.” Now, Chesky said, “we’re stepping on the gas, we’re not putting on the brakes.”

    While the reckoning hitting much of Silicon Valley is painful, Chesky appeared to suggest that a more sober reassessment of the industry could also provide an opportunity for the tech sector to rethink its place in society, after years of criticism for the impact its products can have on people.

    “I think Silicon Valley has done so many amazing things for the world, but we have to be careful having a fetishization of new technology, as if the new technology is going to solve all the problems that the last technology created,” Chesky said. “We need more diversity in Silicon Valley, but that diversity should not just be demographic diversity. We need artists, humanists in this industry.”

    Source: CNN.com

  • Kempegowda: PM Modi of India unveils the statue of Bengaluru’s founder

    The statue of Kempegowda, the 16th-century local leader who founded Bengaluru, was unveiled by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Bangalore).

    The 33m (108ft) bronze statue weighs 220 tonnes and is located at the international airport in the southern Karnataka state’s capital city.

    According to media reports, the statue cost 850 million rupees ($10.5 million; £8.9 million).

    The state government set aside 1 billion rupees for the statue and a theme park in 2019.

    According to a state minister, the statue will be called “the statue of prosperity” to reflect Bengaluru’s progress.

    The city is known as “India’s Silicon Valley” because it is home to some of the country’s largest IT companies and start-ups.

    The statue has been sculpted by Ram V Sutar, who also made the “statue of unity” in Gujarat, which commemorates independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the 600ft-high statue is the world’s tallest.

    The inauguration of Kempegowda’s statue comes months ahead of assembly elections in the state.

    Political analysts say the event is an attempt by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to woo the upper-caste Vokkaliga community, to which Kempegowda belonged.

    The Vokkaligas are dominant in the state’s Old Mysore region – which covers eight districts, including Bengaluru. While the BJP has won elections from this area, opposition parties Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) still have an upper hand here.

    Kempegowda is a hugely revered figure in Karnataka. He was part of the Vijayanagar empire, which ruled parts of southern India from the 14th Century to early 17th Century.

    According to historian Suryanath Kamath, there is evidence of him ruling over areas that include present-day Bengaluru from 1513 to 1569.

    But others say they have unearthed evidence that he was alive until 1608.

    “Much about Kempegowda is known from folklore rather than epigraphy,” says Prof M Jamuna, former chair of history at Bangalore University.

    Prof Jamuna said research had established that Kempegowda was “not the big moustachioed warrior with a sword and a shield as he is presented in statues nowadays”.

    “He did fight wars but he was known to be a diplomat who worked to bring about peace among local chieftains,” he added.