Amazon is seeking to downsize numerous divisions, with Prime Video & Twitch layoffs introduced yesterday. Now a leaked e-mail reveals the Audible division is impacted, too. No phrase but if this extends to Amazon Music or not.
An inside e-mail obtained by Enterprise Insider reveals that 5% of the Audible workforce can be let go. The e-mail is from Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, who writes to his workforce notifying them of the “powerful choice to scale back roles inside our group. The 5 % determine is quoted straight within the e-mail.
When BI reached out for remark, Amazon declined to say something. However the e-mail to employees explains, “to place us for continued success within the coming yr and into the longer term, given the more and more difficult panorama we face, we’ve to take this tough choice now.”
Amazon acquired Audible for $300 million in 2008 and has since dominated the audiobooks trade, branching out into podcast choices in recent times. Whereas Audible has largely been given autonomy to run independently of Amazon’s insurance policies, that seems to be altering as Amazon begins its belt-tightening.
Yesterday Digital Music Information lined the introduced layoffs at Prime Video and Twitch. Prime Video’s layoffs impacted “a number of hundred” people throughout the division, together with the MGM Studio workforce. In the meantime, reside streaming service Twitch introduced 500 jobs can be reduce because the group reorganizes as a smaller firm.
It’s unclear if any of those cuts will prolong to Amazon Music and past, as Spotify has pared its workforce thrice within the final yr. Podcasts paid off through the pandemic growth when everybody was caught at residence—however the trade has develop into saturated with content material and it’s not the gold rush it was in 2020.
Audible struggled with this some too because it pivoted to providing podcasts to its listeners in an try to seize new audiences. Amazon as a complete has had huge layoffs throughout all of its divisions, beginning in late 2022. An estimated 27,000 staff working underneath Amazon or a subsidiary have been impacted since these layoffs started in 2022.