The e-commerce giant did not share details about the number of jobs it will cut or the time period. After the news of the layoffs, the shares took losses and were down about one percent by midday. The announcement heralded a dramatic shift for a company known for creating jobs and added to the latest tech layoffs, which in recent weeks have included similar announcements from Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Lyft and Stripe. The current reduction covers the device segment that released speakers that consumers operate through speech. “After a deep series of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” said Limp.
The Alexa unit takes a hit
The retailer once intended to make Alexa, its voice assistant that powers devices, ubiquitous and present to place any order, though it was unclear how widely users have embraced it for more complex tasks than checking the news or of the weather. Some people who work at Alexa took to the networking site LinkedIn on Tuesday to say they lost their jobs. The virtual assistant, a project inspired by a talking computer in the sci-fi show Star Trek, gathered a following that grew to 10,000 people by 2019. Bezos remains the largest shareholder, with about 10 percent of the shares.
