JobCuts
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Apple details layoffs of 190 workers in its self-driving car division
After early confirmation, Apple is officially laying off workers in its self-driving car team. The company sent a letter to the California Employment Development Department warning that it would let go of 190 Project Titan members employees in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. The move will take place April 16th and will mostly affect engineers, with 124 losing their positions.
Razer's job cuts signal a shift away from mobile
Razer's decision to close its game store wasn't its only cost-cutting measure. The game hardware maker has cut 30 jobs (about 2 percent of its workforce), and its mobile team appears to have been affected more than most. In a statement to Droid Life, it confirmed that it laid off "some" workers and moved others to "new projects." It still saw "great opportunities" in mobile hardware and software, and had "new exciting mobile projects" in the pipeline, but it wasn't clear whether there was a future for the company's handsets beyond the Razer Phone 2.
Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch.
Uber lays off roughly 100 workers in its self-driving team
Uber is scaling back its self-driving team in the wake of the fatal Arizona crash and the subsequent shutdown of its autonomous operations. The ridesharing company has confirmed to Pittsburgh's Action 4 News that it laid off about 100 employees in its self-driving vehicle team. It didn't specify their roles, but noted that most were in its Pittsburgh team while others were in Uber's home territory of San Francisco. Quartz sources reported that these were vehicle operators.
Sphero cuts jobs and refocuses on education
Sphero was supposed to have a banner holiday with a slew of toys themed around Star Wars, Cars 3 and Spider-Man on top of its own self-branded creations. However, things turned out very differently. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it recently laid off 45 workers and is restructuring around education. Holiday sales weren't terrible, Sphero said, but they weren't "exactly what we had expected" -- the education space is one of those areas that "continues to shine." Most of the layoffs affected Sphero's home in Colorado, although people in Hong Kong and the UK were also affected.
Fitbit cuts 110 jobs as wearable sales slow
While Fitbit currently holds top spot in the wearables market, not everything is going to plan. In its fourth quarter financials, the company said today that it didn't grow nearly as much as it had anticipated, which means it will introduce a range of cost-cutting measures to help get things back on track. At the top of the list is confirmation that Fitbit will lay off 110 employees, which equates to around 6 percent of its global workforce.
GoPro cuts jobs and closes its entertainment division
GoPro has been facing tough times lately, and that's unfortunately translating to layoffs. The action camera maker is cutting 15 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring move, including both 200 existing positions and the cancellation of yet-to-be-filled job openings. The reorganization will also lead to the closure of GoPro's entertainment division -- the company's dreams of becoming a media empire will have to wait.
Twitter will fire around 350 employees in hunt for profits
Twitter's not had a great time of it lately, with several would-be suitors deciding that they didn't want to buy the burgeoning social network anyway. Now, the company has announced its latest financial results and a restructuring plan in the hope of making itself profitable by 2017. The headline initiative will be to hack back nine percent of the company's workforce -- around 350 employees. It mirrors a similar move Dorsey made in October 2015 when he fired 336 people from the company in order to cut costs. Twitter expects that the layoffs will cost between $10 and $20 million to cover severance fees.
HP will cut up to 4,000 jobs over the next 3 years
HP is no stranger to large-scale job cuts, and it's unfortunately gearing up for another round. A filing from the PC maker (not the split-off enterprise company) has revealed that it plans to cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs over the next three years, ending sometime in fiscal 2019. HP doesn't say what's prompting the cuts, but it just set its profit expectations for fiscal 2017 (which ends in October) below what financial analysts had been expecting -- it could be a matter of recovering some profitability. HP's computer shipments have been largely flat lately, so it can't count on a surge in demand to boost its bottom line.
Cyanogen reportedly cuts jobs as it changes course
The Cyanogen team formed a company with hopes of becoming the third major mobile platform, but it looks like the custom Android developer is scaling back its ambitions. Sources speaking to both Android Police and Recode claim that Cyanogen is making "significant" job cuts, laying off about 20 percent (around 30 people) of its staff. Reportedly, this is part of a "pivot" that will focus on apps, rather than an entire operating system like Cyanogen OS. Whether or not that involves the firm's MOD platform, its Apps Package or something else isn't apparent.
Pebble cuts 25 percent of its staff (update: clarification)
It's not easy being an indie smartwatch maker in a sea of tech giants. Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky has revealed to Tech Insider that his company is cutting 40 jobs, or 25 percent of its workforce, this week. Simply put, the "money is pretty tight" -- while Pebble has raised $26 million over the past eight months, the investment cash isn't as forthcoming as it has been in the past. Migicovsky is quick to stress that Pebble is in it "for the long haul," though, and has an idea of where wearable tech is going within 5 to 10 years.
Twitter is cutting up to 336 jobs to 'streamline' its workforce
Those rumors of new Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey cutting jobs were unfortunately true. The social network has announced that it's axing up to 336 jobs, or about 8 percent of its total headcount. Dorsey argues that the move is necessary for a "streamlined" roadmap where Twitter focuses on fewer but bigger features, such as Moments. Most of the cuts will affect the engineering division, he says, since the company believes that a "smaller and nimbler" coding group would be more effective.
Qualcomm 'realignment' includes job cuts and a possible split
The rumors of Qualcomm planning a huge reorganization were true -- and unfortunately, that means a lot of people are about to lose their jobs. The mobile chip maker has announced a "strategic realignment" plan that will see the company slash 15 percent of its full-time jobs (the company has about 30,000 total employees) as part of a bid to cut $1.4 billion in costs. It's also considering the possibility of splitting into separate businesses. That may well happen, since a hedge fund calling for the split just got spots for two of its nominees on Qualcomm's board of directors. You'll hear about the company's direction by the end of the year.
Sony is reportedly cutting 1,000 jobs in its smartphone group
There's no doubt that Sony's smartphone division is struggling, and it sounds like that's about to exact a big toll on the company's workforce. Nikkei reports that Sony expects to cut 1,000 jobs in its mobile group, adding to the 1,000 layoffs it announced alongside its less-than-stellar summer earnings. All told, Sony will have slashed 30 percent of its phone team's staff by the end of its next fiscal year, in March 2016. The Japanese tech firm hasn't confirmed anything, but further cuts would make sense. Smartphones represent a big drag on Sony's finances, and its accountants are likely doing everything they can to right that sinking ship.
Sprint cuts 2,000 jobs as its new CEO takes the reins
New CEOs frequently cut jobs to streamline their companies, and Sprint leader Marcelo Claure is proving to be no exception to the rule. The exec is cutting 2,000 jobs as part of "bold actions" he believes are needed to return the carrier to health. It's not hard to see why the layoffs are coming, unfortunately. Sprint is reporting an operating loss of $192 million during its fiscal second quarter (July through September), and it lost 272,000 of its bread-and-butter postpaid subscribers during the period -- not good when a rival like T-Mobile added 2.3 million.
WSJ: BlackBerry expected to cut up to 40 percent of its workforce by year's end
BlackBerry hasn't been hiding the fact that it's cutting back on its workforce, but a new report from The Wall Street Journal today suggests that another particularly big round of layoffs could be in store. Citing people familiar with the matter, the paper says that the company is preparing to cut up to 40 percent of its workforce by the end of the year, with the layoffs expected to "cut across all departments" and "occur in waves." As the WSJ notes, the most recent tally of employees the company has disclosed is 12,700, which is already down from 17,000 two years ago. This latest news also comes after an report earlier this month that at least some BlackBerry board members are pushing for a speedy sale of the company, which reportedly could happen as early as November. For its part, BlackBerry isn't commenting on the specific number of layoffs, telling the WSJ only that "organizational moves will continue to occur to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to drive new opportunities in mobile computing."
IBM reportedly cuts over 1,600 US jobs as part of billion-dollar restructuring
Missing your earnings target by five cents a share wouldn't trouble most companies -- but IBM isn't like most companies. That's why it's reportedly implementing a billion-dollar restructuring program that'll see up to 8,000 jobs being lost from the firm. The Alliance@IBM union is reporting that over 1,600 jobs in the US have already been cut, including 165 from chip research and 121 from storage development. Given that the company is also working out ways of making supercomputer Watson pay its own way, it seems that no-one's immune to a spot of belt-tightening.
Logitech cuts 5 percent of core staff as part of its shift to mobile
Logitech made clear in January that it was jettisoning weight in a bid to stem losses and focus on more successful technologies like mobile peripherals. Sadly, we're learning today that this also includes cutting jobs. The company is shedding 140 positions, or about 5 percent of its non-manufacturing workforce, as part of a streamlining plan that could save an extra $16 million to $18 million during Logitech's fiscal 2014. While there's no specific timeframe mentioned, it's suggested the layoffs will come quickly when the company may pay up to $14 million to address the cuts during its ongoing fourth quarter. Let's hope those affected land on their feet, and that the savings pay off in the long run. [Image credit: Coolcaesar, Wikipedia]
Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 jobs as part of its shift away from mobile
Texas Instruments signaled its intentions to back away from the volatile mobile market as the summer came to a close. Unfortunately, we're now learning that the shift comes at a price -- as part of a wider set of cost-cutting measures, TI is shedding roughly 1,700 jobs worldwide. The chip designer hasn't said how soon the layoffs take effect, but these and the overall budget trimming should lead to savings of about $450 million per year by the end of 2013. That's not going to be reassuring to those who'll soon find themselves looking for work, although it may be necessary for TI to survive when the market for off-the-shelf mobile processors is rapidly thinning out.
Panasonic will cut another 10,000 jobs by March, won't dodge a $10 billion annual loss
Despite the recent uptick in its profits and the fact that it has already deleted 36,000 names from its payroll, Panasonic says it'll have to cut another 10,000 jobs by March of next year. The maker of the Lumix GH3, huge 8K plasmas and much else that is desirable, is steadily facing up to the reality that a fifth of its 100 business units are bleeding cash. But depressingly, even with this major restructuring and continuing efforts to sell off unwanted units, the Japanese old-timer still expects to lose $10 billion during this accounting year and fail in its goal to achieve a five percent profit margin within the next three years.
