What’s with all the big tech layoffs?

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Yahoo is laying off 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its ad tech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch.

Employees were notified on Thursday that 12% of the company (1,000 employees) would be laid off before the end of the day. In six months, another 8% — or 600 people — will be let go. These cuts will impact around half of Yahoo’s ad tech business.

In an interview with Axios, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said that these layoffs are not a result of economic issues, but rather, they are intentional changes to strengthen the unprofitable Yahoo for Business advertising unit. As a whole, Yahoo is profitable, earning around $8 billion in yearly revenue.

In November, Yahoo took an almost 25% stake in advertising network Taboola, which is now the company’s native advertising partner in a 30-year commercial agreement. Lanzone told Axios that these changes will allow Yahoo to increase competition for ad placements eight times over — but as a result of this transition, Yahoo will shut down native advertising platforms like Gemini and its supply-side platform (SSP). Yahoo will also focus on its demand-side platform (DSP), which will be renamed Yahoo Advertising. This division will focus on deals with Fortune 500 companies.

“Over several years, the strategy of our ads business was to compete in the ad tech industry by offering a ‘unified stack’ consisting of our Demand Side Platform (DSP), Supply Side Platform (SSP) and Native platforms,” a Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Despite many years of effort and investment, this strategy was not profitable and struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack.”

Yahoo will lay off 20% of staff, or 1600 people

Yahoo is laying off 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its ad tech business.

techcrunch.com

 

[Dave Russo]

Layoffs, unless it's the so-called, golden hand shake it can really hurt, my condolences to all who are getting l laid off, may you find wisdom in your next step.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

More layoff pain at Microsoft: Github, Xbox, Mixed Reality, and others hit hard - Windows Central's take

The layoffs are emblematic of how little big corporations actually care about their employees. Microsoft ballooned during the pandemic to create wealth for its shareholders and take advantage of the mass shift to work-from-home culture, but as that boom time ends, it seems regular employees are here to foot the bill.

As part of this latest round of layoffs, Microsoft has targeted employees seemingly at random, with veterans with decades' worth of experience and legendary creations under their belts. Microsoft has also callously targeted brand-new hires, some of whom were literally still in the process of expensive relocations to Redmond, uprooting their families in the process. CEO Satya Nadella has a reported net worth approaching $1 billion dollars based on the value of the shares in Microsoft he owns, and is among the highest-paid CEOs in tech, with bonuses in the tens of millions. It's hard to fathom, for me, as a regular mortal, what someone could possibly want with such insane amounts of cash — while those who actually build the products you are selling are cast aside with reckless disregard.

Microsoft is heavily investing in AI tools like ChatGPT that are likely to put millions of people out of work and widen wealth inequality according to some analysts. But hey, if it means some shareholders will be able to buy some more golden bidets for their superyachts I guess it's all worth it.

 

[silversurfer]

In the past few months, there have been tons of layoffs at both large and small tech companies, including Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and more. When these reductions were announced, many affected employees dusted off their LinkedIn page to try to find another job. Now, there's word that LinkedIn itself has been hit with its own layoff wave.

The Information confirmed with LinkedIn's owner Microsoft that a number of its employees were given their notices on Monday. Specifically, the layoffs centered in LinkedIn's recruitment division. The story did not have any information on the numbers of workers that were affected, nor the percentage of the company's total workforce.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is the latest tech company hit by layoffs

The LinkedIn layoffs specificially hit the recruitment division of the business-themed social network. Specific numbers or percentages of workers affected by the layoffs were not revealed.

www.neowin.net

 

[vtqhtr413]

Twilio, a customer communication and marketing software company, said yesterday that it will reduce its global workforce by about 17%. This news comes just a few months after the company laid off 11% of its workforce. At the time, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said that the company had been growing too quickly over the last few years, and they want to scale back operations so it can better focus on core products and services. Per Twilio's latest earnings report, the company had 8,992 employees as of September 30, 2022. It then let go of about 816 people during its first round of layoffs. With the company now cutting 17% of its workforce, means that about 1,400 people will be given pink slips. Once Twilio proceeds with its second wave of layoffs, the company will have bidden goodbye to more than 2,000 people.

Twilio announces another round of layoffs, to cut 17% of its workforce

Communication and marketing software company Twilio is set to cut a significant portion of its workforce. This comes after the company already laid off more than 800 people back in September.

www.neowin.net

 

[Moonhorse]

WithSecure Lays off 120 employees - LayoffsTracker

WithSecure announced a total of 120 employees from their company which means around 9% of the workforce from their total headcount. WithSecure CEO says, “One of our key medium-term goals is to reach profitability by the end of 2023. We have seen some slowness in decision-making in the market...

layoffstracker.com

Withsecure is part of f secure afaik

 

[vtqhtr413]

Sports Illustrated Lays Off Journalists After Announcing Pivot to AI Content

Earlier this month, Arena Group, which owns magazines including Men's Journal and Sports Illustrated, announced that it'd start publishing AI-generated articles. Its CEO and chairman Ross Levinsohn, however, vowed that "AI will never replace journalism." Sounds like that's not going so great. Continuing a years-long cutbacks campaign, Sports Illustrated has been hit with another round of devastating layoffs affecting over a dozen workers. "Hello! I've been laid off from [SI]. Not great!" tweeted Chris Almeida, a former editor for the magazine. "After seven and a half years of writing about the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, LPGA, World Cup, Olympics and more, I, too, have been laid off by Sports Illustrated this morning," rejoined Alex Prewitt, a former senior writer.

Sports Illustrated Lays Off Journalists After Announcing Pivot to AI Content

It promised that AI wouldn't be taking the place of human journalists. Arena Group went ahead and laid off over a dozen employees from its magazine anyway.

futurism.com

 

[show-Zi]

Perhaps the workload of the remaining employees will increase. As a result, service delivery and quality may decline.

Surely, one of the things that companies are looking for in AI is a judgment, with some resentment and criticism, regarding these massive workforce reductions.

 

[oldschool]

The Furniture Hustlers of Silicon Valley

As tech companies cut costs and move to remote work, their left-behind office furniture has become part of a booming trade.

www.nytimes.com

 

[TairikuOkami]

Universal basic income is pretty much inevitable at this point in retrospect to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

Universal basic income is pretty much inevitable at this point in retrospect to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Universal basic income is already happening in many 1st world economies and has been for some time. You will find the elderly, disabled and unemployed are being actively supported by governments through payments right now. The problem is the amount of money it costs to support these groups who don't give back to the nation's economy in any meaningful way. *EDIT* I'll add this caveat that I'm not saying these people are worthless and not valued in society just to be clear, every life is precious, and people need to be looked after especially the vulnerable but the cost of supporting such people is huge.

It's a huge black hole in a lot of countries budgets, and whether it is sustainable long term is another matter. How do you pay for the increasing burden on society these groups bring? It's a tricky question because on one hand you need to support vulnerable people, but the problem is it's going to send some nations bankrupt due to the amount of money they spend on a cohort of people who really don't contribute to the economy and drain large sums of money from nation state budgets for little gain.

I'm not sure how a general UBI would work, I doubt there is enough money to fund such schemes and it would send any strong economy bankrupt.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

...[t]he problem is the amount of money it costs to support these groups who don't give back to the nation's economy in any meaningful way.

...due to the amount of money they spend on a cohort of people who really don't contribute to the economy and drain large sums of money from nation state budgets for little gain.

I'm one of these people. My 'benefit' is A$125/wk below the poverty line, and I survive.

You assume this money goes from the Government/Taxpayer to my mattress! No so, everything I get is fed back into the general economy via cost-of-living, for example, I'm paying the mortgage on my landlord's fifth investment property through rent while my Primary School teacher daughter can't afford to buy a house. So, Govt to me to landlord! Govt to me to Shell! Govt to me to Woolworths! etc.

I pay tax on everything I buy! I don't pay income tax, but then, noone pays income tax on their first A$30k and obviously I'm under that threshold.

Our top 1% income earners are about to have their income tax cut by 15% which is sure to punch a big hole in State revenue.

Finally, if I'm correct, it was the banking sector and corrupt politicians that caused the last few global financial crisis', not the Welfare State.

 

[oldschool]

@TairikuOkami @Zero Knowledge @MuzzMelbourne This video discusses UBI in the context of automation specifically. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with him. Just thought I"d throw it out there.

 

[SumTingWong]

#1 Looming recession and uncertainty economy condition. Maintain high profits to make investors happy.

#2 Artificial Intelligent begins to take over our jobs.

#1 choice make sense to a lot of us, but I don't think this is the actual reason behind this massive layoffs in the tech field.

What surprised to me the most is all these layoffs began right after AI ChatGPT and similar powerful AI went live for public audience. These AI are smarter than 80% of us humans. It can solve a code problem in a matter of a minute, it can write a series of a book with a limited details provided, it can write court documents, it can write a decent-good 2 weeks notice for your employers, it can do digital arts really well, it can do a customer service role. Don't forget, it can develop an application on its own too. Last but not least, AI don't complain and can work 24/7.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

Yeah, ok.

Firstly, UBI is not the same as Welfare Payments, which I was talking about. And besides, we already have UBI in some industries known as Award Wages, essentially negotiated by the workers(unions) not dictated by the Owner's of the Means of Production.

The guy makes some good points but also some HUGE leaps in logic. Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tesla are not basic human needs, which welfare payments are for.

Most people are worried about either Socialism or Capitalism, this guy is talking about Capitalist Socialism isn't he.

Thanks though... UBI, as presented here, sounds pretty bad.

 

[MuzzMelbourne]

#1 Looming recession and uncertainty economy condition. Maintain high profits to make investors happy.

#2 Artificial Intelligent begins to take over our jobs.

#1 choice make sense to a lot of us, but I don't think this is the actual reason behind this massive layoffs in the tech field.

What surprised to me the most is all these layoffs began right after AI ChatGPT and similar powerful AI went live for public audience. These AI are smarter than 80% of us humans. It can solve a code problem in a matter of a minute, it can write a series of a book with a limited details provided, it can write court documents, it can write a decent-good 2 weeks notice for your employers, it can do digital arts really well, it can do a customer service role. Don't forget, it can develop an application on its own too. Last but not least, AI don't complain and can work 24/7.

Ahhh, but can it answer the question... What is Moral?

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Lay offs everywhere: Robots can be fired too

What to do not to become a victim of layoffs? Is it enough to work 24x7 and follow the superiors' orders to the letter? As it turns out, the answer is a "no," particularly if you work for Google.

When Alphabet laid off its employees, not only did the human workers at Google's headquarters lose their jobs but so did the hundred or so robots that helped run the company.

Google recently laid off the 'Everyday Robots' that cleaned and maintained the company's cafeterias as a non-profit venture. As the robots were shut down, the project will probably not be revived any time soon

The Everyday Robots team at Google created them for consumer applications. On the Google campus, the robots assisted with cleaning, recycling, and even opening doors for human employees and guests.

Google has already tightened the screws on its performance-based employee grading after a disastrous 2022 loss of $6.1 billion. Therefore underachievers would have been the ones let go first.

Alphabet's overall profit dropped by a stunning 21 percent to $60 billion, but it wasn't enough to stop the company from reorganizing and restructuring. Almost six percent of Google's worldwide staff was laid off. Ironically, even the best performers were laid off.

Almost a decade ago, Google bought eight different robotics companies, including Everyday Robots. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, were committed to the idea of consumer robots.

Lay offs everywhere: Robots can be fired too - gHacks Tech News

Google recently laid off the 'Everyday Robots' that cleaned and maintained the company's cafeterias as a non-profit venture.

www.ghacks.net