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Dell

Dell to slash about 6,650 jobs in latest tech job cuts

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Dell Technologies Inc is laying off 6,650 workers, or 5 percent of its worldwide workforce, as it faces challenges with a downturn in the market for personal computers and prepares for a global recession.

Dell’s decision aligns it with a slew of U.S. firms on Monday, ranging from Goldman Sachs Group Corporation to Alphabet Inc, that already have fired thousands this year to weather a demand slump caused by high rising prices and increasing interest rates.

Dell
Image Source: bloomberg.com

Dell had already implemented cost-cutting measures such as a hiring freeze and travel restrictions because it coped with a post-pandemic slump in PC sales, which also comprise more than half of its earnings.

Also Read: Twitter to start charging developers for API access

However, those actions are “no longer sufficient,” according to Jeff Clarke, the co-Chief Operating Officer, as he stated in a memo to the workforce.

“What we know is market conditions continue to erode with an uncertain future,” Clarke said. Dell expects to book costs related to the layoffs in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in January.

Source: reuters.com

HP Inc has also announced job cuts of up to 6,000 people. As per a research company IDC, the PC, as well as tablet market, will decline by 2.6 percent in 2023 after experiencing fast expansion during the global epidemic due to working remotely.

“It was only a matter of time before the wave of tech layoffs reached Dell’s shores, given how sensitive the company is to both consumer and corporate confidence,” said Susannah Streeter, markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

Source: reuters.com

As of January 28, 2022, Dell had approximately 133,000 staff members, with approximately one-third located in the United States.

Bloomberg News announced the news of the job cuts earlier today.

Dell’s stock was unchanged before the bell.

Also Read: Samsung, Google & Qualcomm team up on mixed-reality platform

According to preliminary findings from industry expert International Data Corp. (IDC), personal computer deliveries will drop dramatically in the final quarter of 2022. According to IDC, Dell experienced the greatest decline within and between major corporations, with a 37 percent drop when compared to the same period in 2021. PCs account for approximately 55 percent of Dell’s earnings.

In 2022, the technical sector declared 97,171 job cuts, an increase of 649 percent compared to the previous year.

tech companies

Why are so many tech companies laying people off right now?

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In the US, both private and public tech companies cut more than 1,07,000 jobs in 2017, and this January, thousands of workers at Google, Microsoft Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and Salesforce lost their jobs, bringing the total number of large tech corporate layoffs to about 60,000

Several of these layoffs are realistically related to the upcoming capital-raising challenges and possible recession. However, there is another significant reason for it, and it is related to the desire for growth in 2020–2021 and the notion that hiring is a symptom of it. Users, utilization, retention, revenues, and ARR should be the appropriate indications for this, and hiring should be a tool to support these.

tech companies
Image Source: channelfutures.com

The weak market is the clear cause of the layoffs. Nowadays, investors are increasingly cautious and don’t want to fund high-risk projects. Additionally, the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) anticipated in the coming years has decreased substantially, almost returning to the level it was three years earlier.

Also Read: Google Parent Alphabet cuts 12000 Jobs

If so, private venture-backed businesses will require a longer run rate to be able to go public, which may be accomplished in one of two ways: by increasing revenue or by cutting costs. Since investors are reluctant to make more investments, valuations have decreased, making it more difficult to raise significant sums of money.

However, there is yet another very important cause for the layoffs, and that is because some firms forced it upon themselves or because new investors forced it onto them. Many firms raised large sums of money during the bullish 2020–2021 market at extremely high valuations, which were occasionally exaggerated.

The investors encouraged the startups to flourish by promising them future growth. This includes hiring a lot of people in order to demonstrate growth, support the present valuations, and raise the next round’s valuation even further. Now, growth must be calculated using actual data. The key determinants of it are usage, retention, users, ARR, and revenues.

Read More: Discord acquires Gas, the popular teen app to compliment each other

It will frequently include employing individuals who will facilitate growth. In essence, it is regarded as an investment in future growth. As a result, many tech companies were keen to hire when expansion was the main priority for two reasons: Spending money to foster growth and fulfilling the goal of recent investors who were just interested in growth.

Nowadays, with lower valuations and a longer wait for IPOs, priorities are shifting, and most companies now place a higher focus on profit, even at the expense of slower growth.

Layoffs follow for two reasons: first, some of the hires were made while businesses were experiencing rapid development, and hiring was the key indicator to convince the Board of Directors or recent investors that they are doing the correct thing. The second justification is the most obvious.

When the expansion was the top priority, we needed a lot of people to work on it, but as soon as profitability became the top objective, many of these positions were no longer required. Unfortunately, the outcome is always the same: layoffs.

Google

Google Parent Alphabet cuts 12000 Jobs

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The parent company of google announced a 6 percent reduction in staff in its biggest round of job cuts, prolonging a recession among tech firms following record pandemic recruitment.

Alphabet Inc. stated that the job cuts would affect approximately 12,000 jobs all over various units and areas, though some areas, such as recruiting and projects beyond the firm’s core businesses, will have a greater impact.

Google
Image Source: cnn.com

According to individuals with knowledge of the situation, the job cuts attained the vice president level and impacted divisions such as cloud computing as well as Area 120, a company’s internal incubator that had previously faced cuts last year.

As per the report by Layoffs.fyi, which monitors media reports and company updates, the Google layoffs make January probably the worst month yet in a flood of technical layoffs that started last year. Microsoft Corp. announced this week that it would lay off 10,000 employees, the most in over eight years.

Wayfair Inc., a leading online furniture retailer, announced the layoff of about 10 percent of its working population, and Unity Software Inc., a provider of tools for developing videogames as well as other applications, also reduced its workforce.

Amazon.com Inc. announced layoffs of over 18,000 employees this past month, and Salesforce Inc. announced layoffs of 10 percent of its workforce. Meta Platforms Inc. announced a 13 percent staff reduction last year.

During the global epidemic, tech firms such as Google grew greatly as online life gained in popularity. Recent cuts are part of a broader shift toward profit protection and the end of a growth-at-all-costs period in tech.

Officials have recently stated that the company will be strengthening its belt, signaling the start of a new era of much more structured and cost-effective spending. However, the firm had not revealed as big cuts as its Silicon Valley peers.

Also Read: Netflix founder Reed Hastings stepping down as co-CEO

Google recruited vigorously as consumption for its services increased during the epidemic, resulting in a more than 50 percent increase in total Alphabet employee strength since the end of the year 2019.

The layoffs announced this week seemed to fall short of the nearly 12,800 employees Alphabet hired in the third quarter of last year.

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today,” Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a message to employees sent out Friday and posted on the company’s website.

“I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Mr. Pichai wrote.

Source: wsj.com

Overhiring has emerged as a repeating message at technology firms in recent months, as executives realized that some of the hirings they did early in the disease outbreak to keep up with increasing demands for all things digital left them overstaffed as the business climate got ruined.

Salesforce Co-CEO Marc Benioff, Twitter Inc. co-founder Jack Dorsey and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg are among the officials who have apologised.

Amazon

Amazon plans to cut more than 18,000 jobs

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Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will eliminate more than 18,000 employees which is a larger number than the e-commerce giant initially stated last year.

Amazon
Image Source: timesnownews.com

The Wall Street Journal had previously reported on the cuts, which Amazon claimed pre-empted its scheduled announcement.

“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted,” CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees that the company published on its blog. “However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me.”

Source: cnbc.com

Tech firms are picking up from where they left off a year ago in 2023, getting ready for a prolonged economic recession. Salesforce announced on Wednesday that it would decrease its headcount by 10 percent, affecting over 7,000 employees. During the Covid global epidemic, both Amazon as well as Salesforce conceded to hiring too quickly.

Amazon particularly accepted that it had placed too many warehouse staff too quickly since customers shifted to online shopping. At the finish of the third quarter, the firm employed about 1.54 million individuals.

In November, Jassy announced that Amazon would remove positions, such as those in its physical stores, devices, and books divisions. CNBC revealed at the time that tech giant Amazon was planning to lay off approximately 10,000 employees. The figure has risen.

“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” Jassy wrote. “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure; however, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful, and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles.”

Source: cnbc.com

The company intends to notify staff members who will be laid off beginning January 18, Jassy stated, mentioning that the majority of layoffs will occur in the Experience, stores, and People, and Technology (PXT) groups.

Other major tech companies, including Meta, which possesses Facebook, Instagram, as well as WhatsApp, and other businesses based on the cloud such as software firm Salesforce, have recently revealed significant layoffs.

Amazon has so far declared that it will start reducing projects such as the Echo which is better known as Alexa as well as delivery robots, that were wonderful but did not generate revenue.

hp

HP Joins Tech Layoffs Season, Plans To Fire 6,000 Employees

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Hewlett-Packard aka HP, the world’s leading manufacturing company of laptops and electronic devices, decided to join the huge list of tech companies that have officially confirmed mass layoffs on Tuesday.

HP
Image Source: indiatimes.com

During its earnings report, the company stated that it expected to cut 6,000 job positions by the end of the fiscal year 2025, accounting for 12 per cent of its total worldwide workforce.

“The company expects to reduce gross global headcount by approximately 4,000-6,000 employees. These actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2025,” the company said in its fiscal 2022 full-year report. 

Source: wionews.com

the firm would lay off some of its almost 50,000 present employees, bit by bit over the ensuing years to save 1.4 billion USD. After HP reported reduced PC and laptop sales, the decision was made.

Read More: Roku lays off 200 employees after weak Q4 Results

During the pandemic, both groups’ sales increased significantly, but since offices and schools have opened, they have levelled off.

as per the experts, this choice could have been made worse by the unfortunate economical circumstances brought on by the ongoing recession and extremely high inflation.

Due to the confluence of the aforementioned factors, the PC manufacturer predicts a lower revenue for the first quarter in its report.

“Many of the recent challenges we have seen in FY’22 will likely continue into FY’23,” said Marie Myers, chief financial officer. 

Source: wionews.com

In addition, HP reported an 11 per cent decrease in Q4 sales, which came in at 14.8 billion USD, in comparison with the same quarter in 2017.

The announcement made by HP as speaking of layoffs comes as many other big tech firms, such as Amazon, Meta, and Twitter, have decreased their workforces, majorly as a result of a global recession.

In the first week after Elon Musk took control of the microblogging site, Meta fired around 11,000 people from its staff while Twitter let go of half of its workforce. Amazon, which is owned by, Jeff Bezos, has declared that it will be dismissing 10,000 of its workers.

According to various sources on Tuesday, 10,000 or 6 per cent of the poor-performing employees of Alphabet Inc., the parent firm of Google, would be dismissed.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

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Elon Musk is hiring again after firing roughly two-thirds of Twitter’s 7,500 employees in only three weeks.

According to a tweet from a The Verge reporter, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk assured employees in an all-hands meet that the business does not expect future layoffs and is hiring for engineering and ad sales positions. Musk stated that Twitter is hiring for engineering and ad sales positions and that there are no further planned layoffs.

Elon Musk
Image Source: indiatvnews.com

According to The Verge, Musk declared during the meeting that he planned to decentralize Twitter by establishing technical teams in Brazil, Japan, India, and other countries. He asserted throughout the discussion that Twitter’s technological stack has to be completely rebuilt.

Additionally, he asserted that somewhat decentralizing things is a good idea. Musk made a suggestion that engineering teams might also be established in India as part of this.

Read More: Elon Musk puts Twitter’s Blue Verified relaunch on hold

However, Twitter does not currently have any job vacancies advertised on its website, and Musk did not name the specific technical or sales positions for which the company was recruiting. During the meeting, he stated, “In terms of critical hires, I would say people who are great at writing software are the highest priority.” Last week, The Verge reported that Twitter recruiters had begun contacting engineers and inviting them to join “Twitter 2.0 — an Elon company.”

During a half-hour Q&A session with staff members from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, Musk claimed there are “no plans” to transfer Twitter headquarters to Texas, as he did with Tesla, but that it may make sense to have “dual-headquartered” offices in Texas and California.

Anyone joining Twitter today will do so in a far smaller organization than it was prior to Musk’s takeover. The precise number of exits during his tenure is unknown, but before he fired over half the workforce, there were almost 7,400 workers with access to Twitter’s internal systems.

Long-serving engineers, some of whom had served the company for over ten years, as well as an increasing number of corporate leaders, have left the company. On Musk’s first day, Twitter’s CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer were all fired.

The executives of Twitter’s biggest content and advertising partnerships have either left their positions or been fired. As per former and current employees, several “essential” teams were totally destroyed by the layoffs and resignations.

 Another significant change is the suspension of Twitter’s $8 subscription-based “Blue Verification” mark’s re-launch. Elon Musk has also temporarily suspended the “Blue Verified” badge “until there is high confidence of stopping impersonation”.

According to Musk, the social media giant is delaying the rollout of a new system for awarding verified ticks to users and may instead employ other “colour checks” to verify businesses and people. Musk also mentioned that Twitter will soon be in a position to compete with YouTube in terms of offering a video streaming service, dropping a hint that Twitter may do so with “higher compensation for creators” and a pleasant video experience.

The new Twitter CEO today advised Twitter critics to go on other social media sites and ended his statement with the Hindi greeting “Namaste.” He tweeted,” Hope all judgy hall monitors stay on other platforms – please, I’m begging u.”