- Snap Inc., the parent company of Snap, is planning to lay off roughly 540 employees at the company.
- News of the impending layoff was found in an SEC filing earlier this week.
- The filing explains that the layoffs are to help Snap Inc. “reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration”.
A new week brings with it a new round of layoffs, as the 2024 tech winter continues. The latest organisation set to significantly reduce its workforce is Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat.
While a formal blog post or press release has yet to be shared by Snap Inc., the discovery of an SEC filing confirms the impending layoffs.
More specifically it details that 10 percent of its workforce will be laid off. As Engadget points out and according to figures shared during its Q3 2023 earnings report, the company has 5 367 employees, so the 10 percent represents roughly 540 workers.
“On February 5, 2024, we announced a plan to reduce our global headcount by approximately 10% of our global full time employees. In order to best position our business to execute on our highest priorities, and to ensure we have the capacity to invest incrementally to support our growth over time, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our team,” the SEC filing shared.
Discussing the layoffs with Engadget, Snap Inc. noted the decision to implement these job cuts were designed to “best position our business to execute our highest priorities.” It added that the layoffs were necessary to “reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration,” which sounds like a corporate restructuring for all intents and purposes.
What this means for the development of new features and functions on Snapchat with the workforce set to be downsized, remains to be seen, but we would not be surprised to see AI being incorporated into more teams and tasks at the company.
Last year saw Snapchat add an AI to its UI, to very mixed reactions, but like much of the tech industry, Snap Inc. will likely prioritise AI moving forward.
[Image – Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash]
