Netflix lays off about 150 employees, or 2% of its workforce

Netflix It has cut about 150 employees, mostly in the United States, as its revenue growth has slowed as it struggles to contain costs.

The layoffs, according to the company, involve departments and are driven by the need to reduce expenses, not the performance of individual employees. The layoffs represent about 2% of Netflix’s U.S. workforce.

“As we explained [in reporting Q1] earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we also have to slow our cost growth as a company,” a Netflix representative said in an emailed statement. “Unfortunately, we laid off approximately 150 employees today, including Most are in the US. These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough because none of us want to say goodbye to these wonderful colleagues. We are working hard to support them through this very difficult transition. “

In addition to laying off 150 full-time employees, Netflix will cut about 70 part-time jobs at its animation studios and cut freelance positions at its social media and publishing groups. type Exclusive: Netflix axes several animation projectsincluding executive producer Ava DuVernay’s “Wings of Fire”; “Anti-Racist Babies,” a series aimed at preschoolers; and “Kindergarten Greetings.”

“A number of agency contractors were also affected by this morning’s announcement,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “We appreciate their contributions to Netflix.”

Click here to sign up for Variety’s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news and more.

Netflix surprises Wall Street in Q1 2022 Reported net loss of 200,000 streaming customers — the first drop in more than a decade. The company said it expects to lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.Subscriber misses and weak guidance lead to Netflix’s market value hits biggest one-day drop As the company lost $54 billion in value on April 20. The stock has fallen 68% so far this year.

Tuesday’s layoffs followed Netflix laid off about 25 employees in its marketing department last monthincluding many on its Tudum fan-focused content team.

As of December 31, 2021, Netflix reported that it had approximately 11,300 full-time employees worldwide, of which 76% (approximately 8,600) were located in the United States and Canada.

In the first quarter, Netflix reported revenue of $7.87 billion, missing Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $7.93 billion. That’s up 9.8% from a year earlier, when the company’s 24% revenue growth was driven by pandemic-driven earnings. Netflix expects second-quarter 2021 revenue of $8.05 billion, up 9.7% year over year.

In Netflix’s first-quarter earnings interview with analysts, when asked about cutting costs, CFO Spencer Neumann said the company will be “responsible for how we manage our business.”

“In this period of slowing revenue growth, we will protect our operating margins,” Neumann said, reiterating the company’s goal of keeping operating margins around 20% for all of 2022. As a result, “we are pulling back some of our spending growth in both content and non-content spending, but are still increasing our spending and are still actively investing in this long-term opportunity.”

last week, Netflix updates its famous corporate culture memoas first reported type. One of the changes is a new entry in the “Valued Conduct” section of the document: “You use our members’ money wisely.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *