Amazon is shedding about 500 staff in its Twitch livestreaming unit, an government overseeing the enterprise wrote in a memo to staffers Wednesday.
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy stated the cuts had been being made in an effort to “rightsize our firm” and align its headcount with the present dimension of the enterprise.
Amazon acquired Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014. The positioning is most referred to as a well-liked livestreaming platform for video players. After shopping for Twitch, Amazon was largely palms off with the unit, although it has supplied Prime subscribers perks on the livestreaming platform, akin to free video games and in-game loot.
“I do know lots of you’re questioning why that is taking place. During the last 12 months, we have been working to construct a extra sustainable enterprise in order that Twitch will probably be right here for the long term and all year long we’ve got lower prices and made many choices to be extra environment friendly,” Clancy wrote. “Sadly, regardless of these efforts, it has change into clear that our group continues to be meaningfully bigger than it must be given the dimensions of our enterprise. Final 12 months we paid out over $1 billion to streamers. So whereas the Twitch enterprise stays robust, for a while now the group has been sized primarily based upon the place we optimistically anticipate our enterprise to be in 3 or extra years, not the place we’re at in the present day.”
The layoffs characterize the third spherical of cuts at Twitch in lower than a 12 months. Final March, Twitch let go of roughly 400 staffers, and it lower some staff in its buyer expertise division final October.
The unit has additionally seen turnover in its highest ranks. Longtime CEO Emmett Shear stepped down final March, turning the helm over to Clancy, most not too long ago Twitch’s president. The corporate’s chief buyer officer, Doug Scott, introduced his departure late final 12 months, whereas Chief Content material Officer Laura Lee additionally introduced her exit from the corporate final month.
Amazon has undergone the most important layoffs in its historical past, chopping 27,000 staff since 2022. The cuts have been ongoing, with Amazon saying layoffs in its Prime Video and MGM Studios items on Wednesday.
Workforce,
Right now I’ve some extremely tough information to share. As you all know, we’ve got labored exhausting over the past 12 months to run our enterprise as sustainably as doable. Sadly, we nonetheless have work to do to rightsize our firm and I remorse having to share that we’re taking the painful step to cut back our headcount by simply over 500 individuals throughout Twitch. This will probably be a really exhausting day. Our service exists to empower communities to create, collectively, and each single considered one of you has performed a significant function in fostering our group and furthering that mission.
I do know lots of you’re questioning why that is taking place. During the last 12 months, we have been working to construct a extra sustainable enterprise in order that Twitch will probably be right here for the long term and all year long we’ve got lower prices and made many choices to be extra environment friendly. Sadly, regardless of these efforts, it has change into clear that our group continues to be meaningfully bigger than it must be given the dimensions of our enterprise. Final 12 months we paid out over $1 billion to streamers. So whereas the Twitch enterprise stays robust, for a while now the group has been sized primarily based upon the place we optimistically anticipate our enterprise to be in 3 or extra years, not the place we’re at in the present day. As with many different corporations within the tech house, we at the moment are sizing our group primarily based upon the present scale of our enterprise and conservative predictions of how we anticipate to develop sooner or later.
This choice, whereas extremely tough and painful, is important to make sure that we are able to proceed to serve our streamers sustainably with out impacting their potential to help their careers on Twitch. A part of what makes this so tough is the fervour that so lots of you share for the Twitch group, and the exhausting work you have put into serving our streamers.
I do know you all are questioning what this choice means for you and your function transferring ahead. Whereas we all know it’s higher to listen to concerning the affect nose to nose, we notice that it’s extra necessary to share the information with the affected people as shortly as doable. With that in thoughts, this is what you may anticipate throughout the subsequent hour.
In case your function is affected by this choice and you reside within the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, or Singapore.
Within the subsequent couple of minutes, I’ll ship an electronic mail to this group of individuals sharing the unlucky information that your place is being eradicated and necessary particulars on all the things we’re doing to help you thru this transition. Afterward, your org chief will attain out straight by way of electronic mail with extra particular details about your severance bundle and to provide the choice to talk with them individually. These 1:1 conferences will happen over the following few days.
In case your function is affected by this choice and also you’re in any nation not listed above.
Within the subsequent couple of minutes, you’ll obtain an electronic mail from Lauren Nunes with extra particular data on the method and subsequent steps, which fluctuate by nation.
For everybody who’s leaving Twitch in the present day, I understand how necessary it’s to say goodbye to your colleagues, so you’ll retain entry to Slack and your electronic mail till 1 PM PT (if you’re in Singapore, you’ll have entry till 12 PM native time).
In case your function was not affected.
I’ll ship one other electronic mail to this group confirming your function was not affected by this choice. Afterwards, I plan to host regional All Palms all through the day so that you all can hear from me straight. Particulars on the time of those periods and calendar invitations will come by way of later this morning.
I additionally wish to acknowledge how disenchanted I used to be yesterday that this data leaked. I’m sorry for all the anxiousness that it brought about over the past a number of hours. Our hope was that you simply all would hear from us this morning and really shortly perceive how this impacted your function and we had been sadly not capable of speed up the timeline, which I do know could be very irritating.
I wish to shut with my sincerest apology to everybody who’s leaving Twitch. You might be a number of the most proficient, dedicated, and artistic individuals I’ve ever labored with. Thanks for all the things you have executed to assist us construct Twitch and foster our group.
We’re all right here as a result of we consider within the energy of Twitch and our group – and whereas our mission is way from over, proper now our focus is on caring for one another. I’m all the time grateful for a way effectively you all help and present up for each other throughout our greatest and most tough moments.
– Dan
