===Desktop Metal slashes staff by 20% after failed merger

 Burlington, Massachusetts-based 3-D printing company Desktop Metal is cutting more workers after its merger with rival Stratasys fell through last year.

The company will lay off 20 percent of its employees, Desktop Metal said in a securities filing without specifying how many workers will be affected. The company had 1,200 workers at the end of 2022 but cut 15 percent last February.

“We are committed to getting profitable during this challenging period,” chief executive and founder Ric Fulop said in a statement. “We continue to have a positive long-term outlook for this industry as it transitions to mass production.”

Last year, Desktop Metal had planned to merge with larger rival Stratasys, based in Minnesota and Israel. But the $600 million deal fell apart in September after Stratasys shareholders rejected the plan.

The merger would have combined Desktop Metal’s printing technology using metals, composites, and wood with Stratasys’s plastic-based tech. Desktop Metal was founded in 2015 by Fulop and a group of MIT professors, including Ely Sachs, who invented the method known as binder jet printing, which sprays liquid onto layers of powder to form products.

Shares of Desktop Metal closed at about 61 cents on Wednesday, down 17 percent. Since going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in December 2020, Desktop Metal’s stock price has lost more than 90 percent.

Novavax : 12% reduction of global workforce

As previously announced, Novavax, Inc. has recently prioritized reducing its annual combined research and development and selling, general and administrative spend. In connection with those plans, on January 30, 2024, the Board of Directors of the Company approved an approximately 12% reduction of its global workforce, comprised of an approximately 9% reduction in the Company's full-time employees and the remainder comprised of contractors and consultants. 

The Company expects the full annual impact of the cost savings to be realized in 2025 and approximately 85% of the annual impact, excluding one-time charges, to be realized in 2024 due to timing of implementing the measures and the applicable laws, regulations and other factors in the jurisdictions in which it operates.

The Company is expected to record a charge of approximately $4 million to $7 million related to one-time employee severance and benefit costs, the majority of which is expected to be incurred in the first quarter of 2024. Upon completion, the resulting Company workforce is expected to be approximately 30% lower as compared to the end of the first quarter of 2023.

 

PayPal to cut around 2,500 jobs as rivals snag market share

• CEO Alex Chriss has vowed to improve operating leverage
• Latest round of cuts will affect about 9% of the workforce

PayPal Holdings Inc. will reduce its workforce by about 9% as Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss, who took over in September, grapples with rising competition, profit pressures and a raft of analyst downgrades.

In a letter to staff on Tuesday, Chriss said the decision was made to “right-size” the company through both direct cuts and the elimination of open roles throughout the year. Affected staff will be notified by the end of the week, according to the letter, which was seen by Bloomberg News.

American Airlines to lay off 656 employees

American Airlines announced the layoff of hundreds of employees Monday as the carrier seeks to reorganize and improve its customer service team, according to the airline.

"Today, we announced updates to our contact center organization that will help us better serve our customers. As part of these updates, we are creating a new Customer Success team that will be dedicated to providing more convenient, elevated support to American Airlines customers with some of their most complex travel needs," the airline said in a statement to USA TODAY.

"Unfortunately, this means some current positions will be eliminated. We’re working closely with impacted team members to support them through this transition including providing exclusive access to job openings throughout American Airlines, outplacement services and severance."

The layoffs will eliminate 8.2% of its 8,000 customer service-related positions for a total of 656 employees, who are not represented by a union, according to Bloomberg. The impacted includes 335 who work in Phoenix and 321 in Dallas-Fort Worth. These workers currently assist passengers with their lost luggage and AAdvantage loyalty program service groups.

"We are laser-focused on improving your customer experience," Carolyne Truelove, American Airlines Vice President of Reservations and Service Recovery, told Dallas News. "With that focus is digging deep into where we have customer pain points."

Laid-off employees will work in their positions until March 30 and are given the opportunity to be the first to apply for one of the 135 spots on the new Customer Success team, or one of the 800 other open American Airlines jobs, the airline said. Otherwise, they will get severance and job placement support.

UPS cutting 12,000 jobs just months after reaching union deal; mandates return to offices 5 days a week

The United Parcel Service (UPS) reported mixed fourth-quarter earnings, missing revenue expectations for the sixth quarter in a row. The freight company also announced the cutting of 12,000 jobs in an attempt to save $1 billion in a new cost-cutting strategy.

The company also hinted that its Coyote truck load brokerage business may be put up for sale.

The Teamsters in September voted to approve a tentative contract agreement with UPS, putting a final seal on contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.

On a conference call Tuesday morning, CEO Carol Tome said that by reducing the company's headcount UPS will realize $1 billion in cost savings.

UPS also said Tuesday that its board approved an increase of 1 cent in its quarterly dividend to shareholders of record Feb. 20.

"We are going to fit our organization to our strategy and align our resources against what's wildly important," Tome said.

Tome said that UPS is ordering employees to return to the office five days a week this year.

United Parcel Service Inc. anticipates 2024 revenue in a range of approximately $92 billion to $94.5 billion, short of Wall Street's expectations for a figure above $95.5 billion.

Shares of UPS dropped nearly 9% Tuesday.

Revenue also came up short in the fourth quarter, sliding 7.8% to $24.92 billion. That's just shy of Wall Street projections for $25.31 billion, according to a poll of analysts by FactSet.

Profits for the quarter ended in December slid by more than half to $1.61 billion, or $1.87 per share, from $3.45 billion, or $3.96 per share. On an adjusted basis, quarterly earnings per share totaled $2.47, a penny above the average estimate, according to FactSet.

Microsoft cutting 1,900 jobs at Activision and Xbox

 

Microsoft will lay off around 1,900 employees in its Gaming unit, or around 9% of Microsoft Gaming's 22,000 employees, according to a Thursday memo obtained by CNBC.

SAP to cut 8000 jobs in push towards AI

SAP SE executing restructuring as it increases focus on growth areas, such as Business AI, affecting approximately 8,000 positions

• In 2024, SAP will further increase its focus on key strategic growth areas, in particular Business AI. It also intends to transform its operational setup to capture organizational synergies, AI-driven efficiencies and to prepare the company for highly scalable future revenue growth.
• To this end, and to ensure that SAP's skill set and resources continue to meet future business needs, SAP plans to execute a company-wide restructuring program in 2024. The majority of the approximately 8,000 affected positions is expected to be covered by voluntary leave programs and internal re-skilling measures. Reflecting re-investments into strategic growth areas, SAP expects to exit 2024 at a headcount similar to current levels.
• Restructuring expenses are preliminarily projected at around 2 billion, the vast majority of which is expected to be recognized in the first half of 2024, impacting IFRS operating profit. Excluding restructuring expenses, the program is expected to provide only a minor cost benefit in 2024. Expected cost savings and re-investments are fully reflected in SAP's 2024 outlook and the updated 2025 non-IFRS operating profit- and free cash flow ambition.

Ebay to cut about 1,000 employees, estimated 9% of staff

EBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its full-time employees, and reduce work for its outside contractors, saying its staffing and expenses have outpaced growth.

In a blog post, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone wrote that the size of the company's staff and its expenses "have outpaced the growth of our business," which he said prompted the terminations.

In addition, eBay is ending its relationship with many outside contractors.

Both moves, Iannone wrote, are part of an effort to stay more "nimble" in the face of a "challenging" economy.

Founded in 1995, eBay is an early internet pioneer that has survived decades of changes and fierce competition in the world of e-commerce. Today, it is a $21 billion company with nearly 12,000 employees, but its core business has been chipped away at over the years by Amazon and other online marketplaces.

The 1,000 layoffs announced on Tuesday follow a previous staff cut in February 2023, when it sacked 500 workers, as the company attempted to adjust to flagging sales demand after pandemic boom times.

The staff contraction at eBay comes as dozens of other tech companies, including Google, Amazon, and recently, TikTok, have collectively laid off thousands, with executives saying they are still shaking off workforces glutted from the pandemic.

Just four weeks into 2024, dozens of tech companies have laid off nearly 11,000 workers, according to layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job cuts in the sector.

Iannone, eBay's CEO, said employees who have lost their jobs will soon be notified through a Zoom meeting. He requested that all U.S. employees work from home on Wednesday, when many of the lay off notifications will be delivered, to "provide some space and privacy for these conversations."

Earlier this month, eBay agreed to pay a $3 million settlement to resolve a criminal probe into a cyberstalking and harassment campaign led by former eBay employees in which live spiders and a bloody pig face mask were sent to the home of a Massachusetts couple who published a newsletter that focused on eBay sellers and executives.

Citigroup to cut 20,000 jobs

Citigroup plans to eliminate some 20,000 jobs by the end of 2026, marking the next phase of the bank’s most dramatic restructuring plan in decades. 

The cuts will trim about 10% of Citi’s head count, which totaled 200,000 in December excluding the staff employed by a Mexico business that is being spun off. Citi detailed its cost-cutting plans on Friday, when it also announced a fourth-quarter loss.

The bank reported a huge earnings loss of $1.16 per share for the fourth quarter, far below estimates of a loss of 11 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Citi said there were several one-time costs that impacted its results. These included a $1.7 billion charge the bank had to pay related to the regional banking crisis last spring, an $880 million loss in Argentina and $800 million in restructuring costs associated with about 7000 layoffs in 2023.

These layoffs are part of Citi CEO Jane Fraser’s years-long effort to cut red tape at the company and boost lagging profits. Fraser called the results “very disappointing” on a call Friday morning, but said that 2024 would be a “turning point year” for the country’s third largest lender.

In addition to the 20,000 job cuts at the company’s operations, the bank said it will shed 40,000 employees from its Mexican retail unit through an IPO, bringing the total headcount for the company to around 180,000 from 240,000.

Over the next few years, the bank said it expects to pay up to $1 billion in severance pay and reorganization costs related to its planned restructuring.