Amazon is planning to cut ties with a significant number of its employees, according to a report shared by The New York Times today that suggests the retail giant will be laying off “approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as soon as this week.” The news comes six days after Amazon saw its market cap shrink from $1.88 trillion to $879 billion, making it the world’s first public company to lose $1 trillion in market value. Amazon reportedly spent $1 billion developing its Lord of the Rings streaming series, The Rings of Power, which concluded on October 14, 2022, and is currently listed with an average audience score of 39% on Rotten Tomatoes.
From a report by The New York Times (alternate link):
The cuts will focus on Amazon’s devices organization, including the voice-assistant Alexa, as well as at its retail division and in human resources, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The total number of layoffs remains fluid. But if it stays around 10,000, that would represent roughly 3 percent of Amazon’s corporate employees and less than 1 percent of its global work force of more than 1.5 million, which is primarily composed of hourly workers.
From a Bloomberg report (alternate link):
Amazon.com Inc. is the world’s first public company to lose a trillion dollars in market value as a combination of rising inflation, tightening monetary policies and disappointing earnings updates triggered a historic selloff in the stock this year.
Shares in the e-commerce and cloud company fell 4.3% on Wednesday, pushing its market value to about $879 billion from a record close at $1.88 trillion on July 2021. Amazon and Microsoft Corp. were neck-and-neck in the race to breach the unwelcome milestone, with the Windows software maker close behind after having lost $889 billion from a November 2021 peak.