Zoom announced plans to lay off approximately 1,300 employees, or 15% of its workforce, in a blog post on the company’s website on Tuesday.
Zoom shares were up 7% in afternoon trading.
In a blog post, CEO Eric Yuan stated that as the world adjusts to life after the Covid pandemic, the company must adapt to the “uncertainty of the global economy” as well as “its effect on our customers.”
During the pandemic, when people were forced to work from home, they turned to video chat software to stay in touch with colleagues, friends, and family.
“We worked tirelessly to improve Zoom for our customers and users. “However, we also made mistakes,” Yuan admitted. “We didn’t spend as much time as we should have on thoroughly analysing our teams or determining whether we were growing sustainably in the direction of our highest priorities.”
Yuan stated that the layoffs will affect every organisation within Zoom, and that employees who are let go will be offered up to 16 weeks of pay and health-care coverage. The CEO also stated that he intends to reduce his own salary by 98% for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as forego his 2023 corporate bonus.
“As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we are taking today- and I want to demonstrate accountability not just in words but in my own actions,” Yuan wrote in the post.
The layoff announcement is the latest round of job cuts in the tech industry, as Dell announced plans to cut 6,650 jobs on Monday. Google announced plans to lay off more than 12,000 employees in January, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees, and Salesforce announced plans to lay off 7,000 employees.
