Citigroup to lay off 286 employees in New York

(Reuters) - Citigroup will lay off 286 employees in New York, according to filings to the State Department of Labor, at a time the bank is carrying out its biggest overhaul in decades.

 

Three separate notices dated earlier this week showed the layoffs would impact 239 employees from its primary banking subsidiary, 44 from its broker-dealer unit and three from its technology arm.

Citigroup said in January it would cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years, while acknowledging a "clearly disappointing" quarter marred by one-off charges that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss.

The lender is aiming to reduce its global workforce by roughly 8% through 2026, including layoffs from the reorganization, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason told reporters at the time.

CEO Jane Fraser announced the sweeping reorganization plan in September to simplify the bank's structure after divesting from non-core markets and focusing on profitable areas.

Bumble to lay off 350 employees, or about 37% of its workforce

• Bumble announced plans to lay off about 350 employees as part of its fourth-quarter earnings report Tuesday.

• The company said the layoffs will help drive stronger operating leverage and align its operating model with “future strategic priorities.”

• Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones said the company is taking “significant and decisive” action to accelerate its product roadmap, according to the release.

Bumble on Tuesday announced plans to lay off about 350 employees as part of a restructuring plan. A company spokesperson said the cuts amount to about 30% of Bumble’s workforce.

Bumble said the layoffs will help drive stronger operating leverage and align its operating model with “future strategic priorities,” according to its fourth-quarter report. Bumble had more than 950 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2022, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The spokesperson said the latest annual report will be published later this week.

The dating app reported $273.6 million in revenue for the quarter, up from the $241.6 million in the same period last year. Bumble posted a net loss of $32 million, or a loss of 19 cents per share, compared to the year-ago quarter, when the company reported a net loss of $159.2 million, or 35 cents per share.

Shares of Bumble fell more than 8% in after-hours trading Tuesday.  

Transformation Plan: Today, the company announced that it intends to reduce its global workforce by approximately 350 roles to better align its operating model with future strategic priorities and to drive stronger operating leverage. We expect to incur approximately $20 million to $25 million of non-recurring charges, consisting primarily of employee severance, benefits, and related charges for impacted employees, the majority of which will be recognized in the first two quarters of 2024.

Levi Strauss : cutting its global workforce by up to 15%

NEW YORK (AP) — Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co. said Thursday that it’s slashing its global corporate workforce by 10% to 15% in the first half of the year as part of a two-year restructuring plan that seeks to cut costs and simplify its operations.

The company employed about 19,100 people as of the end of November, according to its annual report filed with securities regulators.
San Francisco-based Levi’s said the restructuring is expected to generate net cost savings of $100 million in the current fiscal year. It estimates it will book charges of $110 million to $120 million in the first quarter and said there could be more restructuring charges ahead.

Update Feb 27, 2024

Levi Strauss announced the difficult but necessary step of reducing its workforce to address its cost structure; in most countries workforce actions will take place this week

• "During Q4 earnings in January, we announced that one aspect of this work would involve the difficult but necessary step of reducing our workforce to address our cost structure. In most countries, workforce actions will take place this week. Where required by local laws, including in some European countries, we will first engage in consultation processes with works councils and local employee representatives, which will affect the timelines in those countries.
• I want to acknowledge how tough these past few weeks have been and thank you for your continued hard work and dedication during a time of uncertainty. The prospect of layoffs and having to say goodbye to valued colleagues is always difficult, but we have a responsibility to all our stakeholders to operate our business so it can thrive over the long term. Unfortunately, our costs have been growing faster than our revenue, which is not sustainable for us or for any company. Continuing this way would further burden us with excess operating costs, make us less competitive and slow our progress toward a DTC-first future.
• While workforce reductions will deliver a significant part of the savings that we described in our last earnings call, it is one step in a larger process to change the way we operate and improve the performance of our business. We are also taking action to advance our long-term strategies, specifically:
  • To expedite our pivot to being DTC-first, we are revamping our global operating model and go-to-market process. In essence, we are rewiring and improving the entire end-to-end process, reshaping our company and positioning us to better meet the expectations of our consumers.
  • To accelerate assortment productivity, provide greater clarity to the consumer and create more focus for our teams, we have activated an initial reduction of 13% across our Levi's product assortment for H1'25 and are deprioritizing footwear in some regions. These efforts, together with the recent decision to exit Denizen, are part of our push to deliver a best-in-class consumer experience, focus on higher-margin products and improve working capital management.
  • To achieve greater retail productivity in the U.S., we are taking a deep look at our labor allocation, sales effectiveness and inventory management. We will be rebalancing store teams and removing some management layers, which will result in the elimination of a small number of store leadership positions.
  • To leverage global capabilities and gain additional cost savings, we are looking at centralizing some work at global capability centers like the one we have successfully established in Bangalore.
  • To drive greater impact and efficiency, we are considering the consolidation of North and South Europe into a single European cluster while maintaining country-focused teams where resources need to be closer to consumers."

Sony to cut 900 jobs at PlayStation unit

Sony has announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce.

The layoffs affect a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation's London studio. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games are cancelled, Sony said.

In a blog post, outgoing Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan issued an update on what he called a “difficult day at our company.”

“We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes," Ryan said. "Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted."

 

 

 

 

Expedia to eliminate 1,500 jobs as travel growth moderates

Expedia Group Inc. is eliminating about 9% of its workforce after announcing a leadership transition earlier this month while the online travel company attempts to revive growth and regain market share.

The Seattle-based firm will cut about 1,500 jobs across the globe so it can “invest in core strategic areas for growth,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “Given the recent completion of many significant technical milestones in Expedia Group’s transformation, the business continues to evaluate the appropriate allocation of resources to ensure the most important work continues to be prioritized,” the spokesperson added.

Rivian lays off 10% of workforce as EV pricing pressure mounts

Rivian is laying off 10% of its salaried workforce in a bid to cut costs in an increasingly tough market for electric vehicles, putting even more pressure on its future, more affordable EV called the R2. A limited number of non-manufacturing hourly employees will also be cut, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a companywide email.

This is the third round of layoffs for the EV company since July 2022, when Rivian cut 6% of its workforce. The company cut another 6% of jobs in February 2023.

BuzzFeed cuts 16% of its remaining staff

BuzzFeed Inc. sold its pop-culture site Complex Networks media unit to Commerce Media Holdings, the operator of an online shopping service, for $108.6 million and announced plans for a 16% cut in its remaining workforce.

• BuzzFeed owns its namesake outlet, HuffPost and First We Feast, known for the popular YouTube show “Hot Ones”. BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost from Verizon Media in Feb 2021.
• The sports and entertainment publishing company Complex was acquired for $300 million as part of the SPAC merger in Dec 2021, expanding the staff to 1,400.

The job cuts are expected to result in annual savings of $23 million, BuzzFeed said Wednesday in a statement. Proceeds from the sale of Complex will be used to reduce debt. Commerce Media does business as NTWRK.

Nike cutting more than 1,500 jobs

Nike to lay off 2% of employees, cutting more than 1,500 jobs during broad restructuring

• Nike is cutting 2% of its current workforce as it looks to reinvest in its growth areas and streamline its business.
• The sneaker giant is contending with a slowdown in consumer spending and looking to save $2 billion over the next three years as part of a restructuring plan.
• “This is how we will reignite our growth,” CEO John Donahoe said in a memo obtained by CNBC.

Shortly before the restructuring was announced, The Oregonian reported that Nike had been quietly laying off employees over the past several weeks and had signaled that it was planning for a broader restructuring. A series of divisions saw cuts, including recruitment, sourcing, brand, engineering, human resources and innovation, the outlet reported.

Toast to cut 550 workers

Restaurant-Software Firm Toast to Cut 550 Workers

Bloomberg) -- Toast Inc., a restaurant-focused software company, will cut about 550 employees, adding to the spate of technology industry workforce reductions since the start of 2024.

Known for processing payments for restaurants, Toast went public in September 2021. Its shares have plunged almost 50% since then amid slowdowns in the food industry and competition from companies like Block Inc. Toast generated $2.73 billion in annual revenue in 2022, and analysts expect a 2023 sales increase of 41% to $3.85 billion when it reports fourth-quarter earnings. The company employed 4,500 workers as of the end of 2022, according to regulatory filings.

Toast rival Block, which runs the Cash App and Square payments services, also said last month it was reducing headcount, but declined to give specific details on how many employees would be affected.

Instacart Cuts 250 Jobs in Push for Higher-Margin Businesses

(Bloomberg) -- Instacart, the US grocery-delivery giant, is cutting hundreds of jobs and restructuring its leadership team as the company increasingly shifts its focus to higher-margin businesses such as advertising.

The company’s announcement on Tuesday includes 250 job cuts across the company, according to a spokesperson. That represents about 7% of the workforce. The restructuring will mean fewer incremental product updates so the company can realign its focus on higher-margin areas such as advertising and enterprise products for grocery stores, the spokesperson said.

In addition to the cuts, three company executives are leaving the company, each for personal reasons, the spokesperson said. They are: Chief Operations Officer Asha Sharma, Chief Technology Officer Varouj Chitilian and Chief Architect JJ Zhuang. Instacart isn’t planning on backfilling Sharma’s and Zhuang’s roles.

Paramount Global to lay off 800 employees after record Super Bowl ad revenue and ratings

Paramount Global (PARA) will lay off hundreds of employees following a record-setting Super Bowl that garnered more than 123 million viewers across all company platforms, led by CBS.

The job cuts, which will take place Tuesday, will impact about 800 employees, or roughly 3% of Paramount's workforce, sources familiar with the matter told Yahoo Finance.

In an internal memo to employees, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish reiterated his previous comment that layoffs are necessary in order to return the company to earnings growth. "I am confident this is the right decision for our future," he wrote.

 

Cisco cutting 5% of global workforce, amounting to over 4,000 jobs

• Cisco said it would let go of 5% of employees, which works out to around 4,250 people.

• The company’s quarterly and full-year forecasts were light.

Cisco announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce on Wednesday, a decision that will result in the elimination of about 4,250 jobs. Shares of Cisco were down as much as 9% in extended trading.

It’s the latest tech company to downsize in 2024, as the industry continues to squeeze out costs following the market downturn that hit two years ago. January was the busiest month for job cuts in the industry since March, as Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and SAP all said they were eliminating positions, as did eBay, Unity and Discord. So far this year, 144 tech companies have laid off almost 35,000 workers, according to the website Layoffs.fyi.

==DocuSign to lay off 6% of workforce, or about 440 jobs

DocuSign announced Tuesday it will cut 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan, according to a release.

• The company employs 7,336 workers according to its most recent filing with the SEC, which means the layoffs will affect around 440 jobs. 

Estée Lauder to eliminate up to 3,000 jobs

• Two-year restructuring program to eliminate up to 3,000 positions. 

 The Estée Lauder Companies will eliminate up to 3,000 jobs as part of a two-year restructuring program. The move includes the "reorganization and rightsizing of certain areas of the company as well as simplification and acceleration of processes."

More specifically, ELC will eliminate in the range of approximately 1,800 to 3,000 positions globally. That represents about 3-5% of its positions including temporary and part-time employees as of June 30, 2023. This reduction takes into account the elimination of some positions as well as retraining and redeployment of certain employees in select areas.

The restructuring is expected to be completed in fiscal 2026. ELC expects that the restructuring program will cost $500-$700 million, before taxes, consisting of employee-related costs, contract terminations, asset write-offs and other costs associated with implementing these initiatives.

Once fully implemented, the company expects the restructuring program to yield annual target gross benefits of between $350 million and $500 million, before taxes, a portion of which is expected to be reinvested in consumer-facing activities. The net benefits are in addition to the between $800 million and $1 billion previously communicated as part of the profit recovery plan.

Snap to lay off 10% of global workforce, around 500 employees

Snap said it will lay off 10% of its workforce worldwide, around 500 employees, to “promote in-person collaboration.”

• The company’s last major round of cuts was in August 2022, when it laid off 20% of staff and restructured its business lines.
• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, one of several social media executives to face scrutiny over the damage their platforms caused young people.
• The social media platform is the latest tech company to continue cutting in 2024. Nearly 24,000 tech workers lost their jobs in January alone. Already this month, cybersecurity and identity company Okta and Zoom have laid off staff.
• Snap stock remains below its debut price and well off its 2021 high of around $83.
  

 

 

Snap announces plans to reduce headcount by approx. 10% of global full time employees; will incur pre-tax charges of $55-$75 mln related to the headcount reduction

• Per a filing, "In order to best position our business to execute on our highest priorities, and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our team."
• As a result, SNAP currently estimates that it will incur pre-tax charges in the range of $55 million to $75 million, primarily consisting of severance and related costs, and other charges, of which $45 million to $55 million are expected to be future cash expenditures. The majority of these costs are expected to be incurred during the first quarter of 2024. Potential position eliminations in each country are subject to local law and consultation requirements, which may extend this process into the second quarter of 2024 or beyond in certain countries. The charges that they expect to incur are subject to a number of assumptions, including local law requirements in various jurisdictions, and actual expenses may differ materially from the estimates disclosed above.