Nextdoor : Social Media Giant Slashes 25% of Staff

Nextdoor (NYSE:KIND), the neighborhood-centric social media platform headquartered in San Francisco, is slashing its employee count by a quarter as it looks to weather the economic challenges that have beset social media companies and the tech industry at large. 

The company confirmed the employee cutback in a third-quarter earnings report released Tuesday afternoon, with Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar calling the layoffs “the hardest decision we have had to make as a team.” 

In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing last year, Nextdoor confirmed it employed 704 people. Assuming the number stayed flat, that means 176 Nextdoor employees will get a pink slip. A Nextdoor spokesperson did not provide an exact number but confirmed that almost 200 employees are part of the reduction.

This marks the first round of layoffs at Nextdoor this year but continues a worrisome uptick of layoffs in recent weeks as interest rates remain high and advertising revenue declines.

Charles Schwab lays off up to 2,154 people out of 35,900 staff

Charles Schwab Corp. has laid of 5% to 6% of its total head count of 35,900 as it moves to contain costs and remove complexity from the broker as it integrates its acquisition of TD Ameritrade.

The employee reduction amounts to 1,795 to 2,154 people after it disclosed plans to reduce its expenses in July.

Other steps include changes to its real estate footprint, streamlining its operating model, and staffing reductions mostly in non-client-facing areas.

“We have said good-bye to approximately 5-6 percent of our workforce,” according to an internal memo at Schwab SCHW, +1.77% seen by MarketWatch from a company spokesperson. “These were hard but necessary steps to ensure Schwab remains highly competitive, with industry-leading levels of efficiency, well into the future.”

Schwab stock rose by 1.9% % on Wednesday.

The job cuts were part of a previously disclosed effort to save $500 million in the second half of the year.

Citing a report by RIABiz that the broker has laid off up to 2,000 employees this week, William Blair analyst Jeff Schmitt reiterated an outperform rating on Schwab.

He said the company offers “the potential for a significant rebound in EPS in 2024 and 2025 as cash sorting abates, short-term funding costs decline, client cash stabilizes, organic growth returns to historic levels and share buybacks reemerge.”

Schmitt said in a research note on Tuesday that key risks facing Schwab include higher-than-expected cash sorting — moving money into higher interest-bearing accounts — as well as integration risks from its TD Ameritrade acquisition and regulatory reforms such as changes to payment for order flow and a near-term shift in the Fed’s interest rate policy to easing.