Where are the big tech layoffs concentrated?
By observing the geography of the layoffs of the Big Tech companies, it is possible to understand what they will aim for (and what they are sacrificing). Facts, numbers and insights
Bloomberg has released the news that this week Spotify, the Swedish music streaming giant, will make new layoffs after those made in October 2022 (almost 40). The US agency cited sources close to the company, without however giving further information on the extent of this downsizing. Spotify currently employs nearly 10,000 people worldwide. This is not a bolt from the blue, considering what is happening among Big Tech.
GOOGLE SAVE ALMOST NOBODY
The Verge and The Information have drawn up a series of insights useful for understanding which sectors within the giants are most sacrificed. The Information explains that the layoffs of 12,000 Google employees would have weighed equally heavily on almost all departments of the company, however, data in hand, the ax would have struck more vehemently on the Chrome, Google Search, Android and Google Cloud departments.
FOR WHOM THE SPENDING REVIEW BELL TOLS
Also according to the investigation, it seems that those being escorted to the door were high-performing and high-wage employees, including managers with annual salaries of between half and a million dollars. In short, the spending review started from the top.
The Google Brain team was saved, at least partially, but after all with the very recent explosion of the ChatGPT phenomenon, any contrary decision would have been anachronistic.
Let's not forget that Microsoft could use that artificial intelligence to power Bing, and Google knows it well if it has decided to call back its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to work on implementing AI in its products and services so as to be at the height of challenges ahead.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF LAYOUTS IN BIG TECH
Bloomberg and Polygon have focused on Microsoft, which laid off 10,000 employees in the past week. As Start Magazine had anticipated , the personnel cuts also affected the gaming division, including 343 Industries and the software house acquired just 2 years ago Bethesda Game Studios .
In short, if the ax has also struck the studios responsible for first-rate titles, capable of selling millions of copies, such as Halo, Starfield, The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim, Oblivion…) and Fallout , the situation in the parts of Redmond must be particularly heavy .
—Halo (@Halo) January 21, 2023
So much so that in the last few hours the Halo team, one of the most important IPs available to Xbox, has intervened to reassure the players. For a level playing field, the layoffs concerned another first-rate software house: The Coalition, responsible for the Gears of War series.
Bloomberg also points out that Microsoft has forced part of the Hololens team to put their personal belongings in a box following the stop to funds for the development of AR viewers arrived from the US military.
EVEN AMAZON DRONES SHAKE?
As for the 18,000 job losses at Amazon, CNBC notes that, in addition to sales, the engineers behind Prime Air have also been out of the e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos .
After receiving, in August 2022, the approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to use drones for parcel deliveries, at the end of the year users of Lockeford and College Station were able to register for the service to experiment with it, but now the spending review big questions about the future of the project, which could be scaled down.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/dove-si-concentrano-i-licenziamenti-delle-big-del-tech/ on Mon, 23 Jan 2023 13:44:08 +0000.