Roku is trying to make things better, so they are laying off 200 people – or about 6% of their staff. They also want to close offices that are not being used and rent out other ones. This will save money for Roku and help them focus on projects which will give them a bigger benefit in the end.
The company that makes the device and platform needs to spend around $30 – 35 million in order to do the layoffs and shut down some buildings. These costs will mostly be paid this month or by March (the first quarter). The layoffs should also happen by June, which is during Roku’s second quarter.
In November, Roku decided to reduce the number of employees by 200 because of bad ‘economic conditions.’ This meant that their money-making was not great in the second half of 2022 and could become even worse due to a recession. They were also facing competition from companies like Disney and Netflix, since people have been at home more recently due to the pandemic. Compounding their troubles, Silicon Valley Bank ran into trouble this month and if regulators had not taken action, Roku might have lost over one quarter of their cash.
Roku isn’t the only big technology company letting go of employees this year. Many big names like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have all cut down their staff. But, Roku’s cuts are happening at a crucial time because it just released its own TVs and many other companies like Amazon, Apple and Google want a piece of the market too. This means that Roku really needs to invest money into its tech in order to stay ahead of its competitors who have lots of money.
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