Tag: amazon

In September 2022, the company said it had around 1.5 million employees in total…reports Asian Lite News

Amazon on Thursday confirmed it is laying off around 18,000 employees and several teams will be impacted, especially Amazon Stores along with People, Experience and Technology (PXT) organisations.

The Amazon CEO said in a statement that they were not done with the annual planning process as earlier mentioned, and “I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023”.

“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me,” said Jassy.

“We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18,” he added.

In November, reports surfaced that the e-commerce behemoth was aiming to cut its workforce by around 10,000.A

In September 2022, the company said it had around 1.5 million employees in total.

Amazon earlier admitted it was consolidating “some teams and programmes” in its hardware and services division, and Jassy had told workers that there would be “more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments” in 2023.

This makes Amazon’s reduction one of the largest from a tech giant yet.

Meta last year announced that it was laying off around 11,000 employees, while chip-maker Intel announced that they’re planning to make significant cuts throughout the year.

Google is also planning to lay off a significant number of employees in early 2023.

Jassy said that Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and will continue to do so.

“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure; however, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful, and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles,” said the Amazon CEO.

He said that the company is working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.

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An Amazon spokesperson said the loan has been taken to safeguard against the “uncertain macroeconomic environment”…reports Asian Lite News

E-commerce giant Amazon has secured $8 billion in Term Loan from DBS Bank, Mizuho Bank and others, that will be used for “general corporate purposes”.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said that the loan will mature in 364 days (January 3, 2024), with an option to extend for another 364 days.

“Upon funding, proceeds of the Term Loan will be used for general corporate purposes,” it said in the filing.

“Upon an event of default that is not cured within applicable grace periods or waived, any unpaid amounts under the Term Loan may be declared immediately due and payable and the commitments may be terminated,” it added.

In a statement to TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson said the loan has been taken to safeguard against the “uncertain macroeconomic environment”.

“Given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, over the last few months we have used different financing options to support capital expenditures, debt repayments, acquisitions and working capital needs,” said the spokesperson.

To reduce costs, Amazon plans to reduce its workforce in early 2023 by as much as 10,000 employees.

Some reports have even claimed the lay-off number in the range of 20,000.

Amazon has frozen hiring for corporate roles in its retail business.

The company has also delayed the joining dates for some university graduates who were set to join the company in May, as part of cost-cutting efforts.

The company said that the students would not be able to begin until the end of 2023.

The job cuts will hit several divisions, especially the Alexa virtual assistant business and the Luna cloud gaming unit, and corporate employees were being informed about being let go.

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Customers will have access to full course material online for extended period of an year, until October 2024….reports Asian Lite News

Amazon on Thursday said it is shuttering its edtech offering called Amazon Academy’s operations in India starting from August 2023, and will refund the full fee to those enrolled in the current academic batch.

The e-commerce behemoth officially launched Academy (previously called JEE Ready), last year.

“At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers. We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments,” a company spokesperson said.

“Following an assessment we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Academy. We are winding down this programme in a phased manner to take care of current customers,” the spokesperson added.

Amazon Academy’s operations will discontinue starting August 2023, when the existing batch completes its test preparation module.

Customers will have access to full course material online for extended period of an year, until October 2024.

The company said that it remains committed to its customers in the country and the decision will have no impact on its services.

In January last year during the pandemic, the company launched Amazon Academy to help students preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for entrance to engineering colleges.

The online preparation offered practice routines required for the JEE, through curated learning material, live lectures and comprehensive assessments in Math, Physics and Chemistry.

The service enables active learning through live lessons, helping students to strengthen their JEE preparation efforts as they can engage with expert faculty, learn concepts, and clarify doubts in real-time.

Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has warned employees that there will be more layoffs at the company in early 2023 “as leaders continue to make adjustments”.

The e-commerce giant publicly confirmed some layoffs on Wednesday and now, Jassy has said more layoffs are coming as Amazon’s annual planning process extends into the new year.

“Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organisations early in 2023,” he said in a statement late on Thursday.

“We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organisations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down,” Sassy added.

Amazon will prioritise communicating directly with impacted employees before making broad public or internal announcements.

“This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years,” said Jassy.

The company did not reveal the exact number of employees being hit although earlier reports put the number at 10,000 employees or 3 per cent of its workforce.

The massive job cuts have hit several divisions, especially the Alexa virtual assistant business and the Luna cloud gaming unit.

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Amazon is aiming to eliminate about 10,000 jobs, mostly in retail, devices and human resources…reports Asian Lite News

After Meta and Twitter, Amazon has become another Big Tech company to lay off thousands of workers and the process to eliminate 10,000 employees, or 3 per cent of its workforce, kicked off at the company, the media reported.

The massive job cuts have hit several divisions, especially the Alexa virtual assistant business and the Luna cloud gaming unit, and corporate employees were being informed about being let go, reports CNBC.

Amazon is aiming to eliminate about 10,000 jobs, mostly in retail, devices and human resources.

“Amazon employees were called into meetings with their managers across the country Tuesday, and many were told they had two months to find another job internally or accept severance payment,” the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday.

Within hours of the layoffs beginning, employees started posting on LinkedIn to say they had been asked to go and were looking for new jobs.

“Several employees were laid off from Amazon’s Alexa team, which works on the voice assistant technology, and layoffs occurred in Boston, Seattle, Vancouver and the Bay Area,” said the report.

“Seeing these aI Got Laid Off’ posts is horribly distressing. This is horrible,” one laid-off employee wrote in the company’s internal messaging app Slack.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced a broad hiring freeze among its white-collar workforce that would last at least “the next few months.”

Meta earlier cut 11,000 jobs, and Twitter laid off about 3,800 regular employees, apart from sacking thousands of contractual workers.

Amazon employed more than 1.5 million workers (as of September).

Earlier this year, the e-commerce giant more than doubled the cash compensation cap for its tech employees, citing “a particularly competitive labour market”, according to reports.

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Amazon is now reviewing its Alexa virtual assistant-driven business as part of a major cost-cutting exercise headed by CEO Andy Jassy…reports Asian Lite News

Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off approximately 10,000 of its workforce in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, a media reported.

According to The New York Times, the cuts will target Amazon’s devices organisation, which includes the voice assistant Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources.

Amazon is now reviewing its Alexa virtual assistant-driven business as part of a major cost-cutting exercise headed by CEO Andy Jassy, the media reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon’s entire devices unit has had an operating loss exceeding $5 billion in some recent years.

Amazon is now looking into whether it should “focus on trying to add new capabilities to Alexa,” according to the report.

The cost-cutting review includes the devices unit with Alexa, a voice assistant available on a variety of Amazon devices.

“The business has more than 10,000 employees and is a major recipient of investment capital,” according to the report.

It appears that the e-commerce giant is considering reducing its investments in Alexa-driven products.

The total number of layoffs is yet to be determined, but if it is around 10,000, it would represent about 3 per cent of Amazon’s corporate employees and less than 1 per cent of its global workforce of more than 1.5 million, which is primarily composed of hourly workers, said the report.

Amazon will also become the latest technology company to lay off employees, which only recently, it had been fighting to retain.

Earlier this year, the e-commerce giant more than doubled the cash compensation cap for its tech employees, citing “a particularly competitive labour market”, according to the report.

Changing business models and an uncertain economy have resulted in layoffs across the tech industry.

Elon Musk cut Twitter’s headcount in half after purchasing the company earlier this month, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced last week that it was laying off 11,000 employees, or roughly 13 per cent of its workforce.

Moreover, many Indian startups have laid off hundreds of employees in the wake of a decline in funding and investment, including Byju’s, Ola and Unacademy.

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