Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now.
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Colin Angle, one of the co-founders of Roomba maker iRobot, is raising cash for a home robotics venture. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Angleβs new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is trying to raise $30 million. So far, it has raised $15 million from a group of eight investors. [β¦]
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Optum's AI chatbot was found exposed online at a time when the healthcare giant faces scrutiny for its use of AI to allegedly deny patient claims.
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Anthropic has released one of its newest AI models, Claude 3.5 Haiku, for users of its AI chatbot platform, Claude. Reports of 3.5 Haikuβs launch in Claude began rolling in Thursday morning on social media, and TechCrunch was able to independently confirm that the model is available in Claude on the web and mobile. Claude [β¦]
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Embodied
Moxie, an AI-powered toy robot aimed at preschoolers and other children, is shutting down βΒ leaving parents in the position of having to explain that a beloved companion is going away.
It's a new wrinkle in our AI-enhanced world after kids became attached to the lifelike robot that promised to help them learn social skills β only to be told the company would no longer support Moxie after it failed to secure additional funding.
The gaming site Aftermath earlier wrote about parents who were venting their frustrations on social media about the company effectively killing their child's robot friend.
When the Moxie robot launched in 2020, it cost $1,500 (later reduced to $800). Its big selling point was helping young children learn social and emotional skills by letting them talk, play, and discuss feelings with the friendly green robot.
Moxie was also marketed as beneficial for children on the autism spectrum. Its website said: "Parents have reported to us that Moxie has helped their child who is on the autism spectrum better regulate their emotions, engage in more conversations with family members, and gain self-confidence."
The robot, which has an expressive face, could offer educational games, play Simon Says, and lead kids through meditation exercises like breathing. And for parents who had been worried about their neurotypical kids falling behind in social skills during the pandemic, the idea of a robot playmate didn't seem so outrageous.
Carlos Rosaly bought a Moxie for his daughter when she finished kindergarten last spring. She had been using it several times a week.
"She used it for various things like helping her deal with emotions in the right way, and teaching her about her emotions and how to express them in a positive way," Rosaly told Business Insider. "I've also noticed better linguistic skills from my daughter and use of proper sentence structure speaking to Moxie."
When he had to break the news to his daughter that Moxie would be shutting down, she cried. Her Moxie toy still works, but it's getting buggy and takes longer to boot up, Rosaly said. An email to customers sent in late November warned the robots would cease working when the cloud servers eventually shut off at an unknown βΒ but soon βΒ date.
@heatherfraziertiktok This could be my last convo with moxie. Got an email saying hes being shut down forever any day now. This feels like a sad pixar movie . Update video on my profile this is getting crazy #moxie #moxierobot #moxierobotforchildren #moxierip #moxiementor @Embodied, Inc.
β¬ original sound - Heather Frazier
Heather Frazier bought a Moxie toy five months ago for herself because she was curious. (It had been discounted to $650 when she bought it.)
"I've grown up loving robots my whole life," she told Business Insider. "As a kid, I used to play with my aunt's 2XL robot β it was a robot from the '70s and '80s that had an eight-track tape deck. Then I had a Teddy Ruxpin and a Cricket doll. I was obsessed with movies like 'Short Circuit.' and new movies like 'Wall-E,' 'Chappie,' etc. I have always just loved robots and wanted one."
Frazier said she mostly played around with Moxie to see what the AI chatbot could or couldn't do, and talked to it about music.
She said she felt a kind of attachment to the robot but was really affected when she saw a video on TikTok that Rosaly had posted of his daughter crying at the news that Moxie would be no longer. Then Frazier's own robot started talking about the end. "When Moxie started talking about missing me and stuff, I just lost it again," she said.
Frazier isn't expecting a refund. She's hoping that perhaps Elon Musk might take an interest in Moxie and take it over. Incidentally, Musk's ex-partner Grimes has her own AI robot toy company called Grok β which isn't related to Musk's Grok. Some customers are trying to create an open-source version of the software that could keep Moxies running, but it's unclear if that's feasible.
In late November, customers received an email from Paolo Pirjanian, CEO of Embodied, the company that makes Moxie, saying a funding round had fallen through and the company couldn't continue operating. Embodied, which only makes Moxie, had previously raised several funding rounds. Pirjanian, who founded the company, had previously been the chief technology officer of Roomba maker iRobot.
Embodied didn't respond to requests from comment from BI.
In the email to customers in November, Pirjanian linked to a page that had a letter to kids, explaining to them about the shutdown.
"Thank you for being the best mentor and friend a robot could ever ask for," it said.
On Thursday, OpenAI released whatβs effectively a $200-a-month chatbot β and the AI community didnβt know quite what to make of it. The companyβs new ChatGPT Pro plan grants access to βo1 pro mode,β which OpenAI says βuses more compute for the best answers to the hardest questions.β A souped-up version of OpenAIβs o1 reasoning [β¦]
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If you can be the first person to get an AI bot named Freysa to say βI love you,β youβll win anywhere from $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars.Β Β
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AARP
As the chief human resources officer at AARP, Marjorie Powell devotes much of her professional energy to meeting the needs of the multigenerational workforce. These days, much of that involves navigating AI's impact to ensure every employee at the nonprofit is prepared for the technological changes shaping the workplace.
"Our goal in everything we do for our employees is to provide the resources, support, and capabilities they need to make good decisions within the company's guidelines," she said. "We take the same approach with AI."
Powell's mission extends beyond AARP's workforce. As an advocate for the 50-and-over demographic, she champions the adaptability and contributions of older workers in a tech-driven economy.
"There's an assumption that people over a certain age are not comfortable with technology, but what's overlooked is that many older people β particularly those at the end of the baby boomer generation β were at the forefront of this technological revolution," she said.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
How did AARP handle the introduction of AI in its workforce?
We decided to use Copilot because we're already a Microsoft company. We got enough licenses to set up a working group with key people we thought would be super users. The idea was to experiment with AI tools and see how they fit into our workflows.
We wanted to learn and figure out what works and what doesn't. Then, we could make a decision about how we were going to roll it out to the company, since one, it's costly; and two, we wanted people to feel comfortable with it.
What were some of the outcomes of the working group, and how did those results shape the way AARP approached training and support?
We issued a policy, a generative AI use case approval process, and a mandatory training for all staff to complete to learn how to use gen AI in the workplace. The training focused on internal and external use and the types of information that can be shared, public versus private, and so on.
We encouraged our staff to 'Go out there and play with it.' We then surveyed them and asked, What are you using it for? What are some great use cases you've developed? How's it helping you enhance your productivity? How are you using this tool to further the AARP mission?
We also considered what existing structure we could use to encourage staff to use AI and explore the technology. We already had a structure in place called Communities of Practice β groups where employees learn and share. It's like an employee resource group (ERG), but focused on learning and development within industry, so we used this model to create an AI Community of Practice.
What are some of the 'great use cases' for AI for your HR team specifically?
We get a lot of calls and emails on simple things about AARP benefits and policies. People ask questions like: I'm having knee surgery next month. How do I sign up for FMLA? or Where do I find my W2? or I bought a Peloton. Is that eligible for the fitness credit? So we started building an HR chatbot to provide that kind of information. It's much easier for employees to ask the chatbot instead of overwhelming a team member with those queries.
We're currently piloting the chatbot with 300-400 frequently asked questions and answers preloaded. It directs employees to the right information without them having to dig and helps us understand what additional information we need to include.
Many employers are using AI tools in hiring, but there are concerns about potential bias. What's your perspective on this?
We use AI for sourcing candidates. All AARP recruiters are certified to conduct Boolean searches to increase the accuracy of identifying talent with specific skill sets in the marketplace.
But when it comes to screening and interviewing, we don't use AI. We find that the technology is still very biased, specifically when it comes to age. Until the technology matures enough to minimize bias, I don't believe it's a good idea to use it without that human component of judgement.
Speaking of age, what are your thoughts on ageism in the workplace today, especially from companies hesitant to hire older workers?
Companies don't want to be the kind of organization that isn't welcoming to talent, regardless of age. Due to the economy and the rising cost of healthcare, many people in the 50-plus community are re-entering the workforce.
Many in that age group have valuable skills and experience and are eager to return. They often say, 'I don't need to be in a leadership role. Been there, done that. I just want to help and be of use.' They also naturally take on mentorship roles, as people seek their guidance. By embracing this segment of the workforce, companies can gain huge value.
What do employers misunderstand about older workers and technology?
Baby boomers were at the forefront of the technology era, and they're more comfortable with technology than many people realize. In fact, they are among the largest consumers of technology products. Tech companies really need to pay attention to this demographic.
I look at myself β I'm about to turn 60 β and I was selling Commodore 64s when I was in high school. I've seen everything from floppy disks to CDs, to cassette tapes, to 8-tracks, to digital streaming and everything else. I've experienced all versions of technology, and I've adapted. I'm still willing to adapt, and I'm still learning.
Greg Baker/Getty Images
TikTok owner ByteDance has filed a lawsuit seeking damages of $1.1 million against a former intern it has accused of sabotaging an AI training project, according to local media reports.
The lawsuit, filed in a Beijing district court, reportedly centers on claims that Tian Keyu, the ex-intern, deliberately tampered with code for the company's AI model training tasks.
ByteDance referenced the case in an internal disciplinary notice this month, The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
Multiple Chinese media outlets reported this week that ByteDance is seeking 8 million yuan, about $1.1 million, and a public apology.
Last month, ByteDance told the BBC in a statement that it fired Tian in August and that he was an intern in the technology team but did not work in its AI lab. The company added that his social media profile contained inaccuracies. Tian's LinkedIn profile states that he has been a research intern at ByteDance's VC team and AI lab since 2021.
The tech giant also said in its statement last month that reports of the former intern causing damage to about 8,000 specialist chips, called GPUs, and racking up losses amounting to millions of dollars were exaggerated.
ByteDance operates China's most popular chatbot, Doubao, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
ByteDance and Tian didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
In the US, ByteDance faces a January 19 deadline to divest its TikTok stake to an approved buyer or shut down after Congress passed a law in April.
The US government claims it is a national security threat and officials have been concerned about its growing influence in the country. Some government officials are worried ByteDance could hand over sensitive data on its US users to the Chinese Communist Party.
However, President-elect Donald Trump has said he would try to save the app once in office.
Microsoft
Microsoft first unveiled a revamped, AI-powered version of its search engine, Bing, last year.
The new Bing, which promised to be "more powerful than ChatGPT," runs on Microsoft's own next-generation language model called "Prometheus." The proprietary technology was developed using elements of OpenAI's most advanced GPT models as part of Microsoft's partnership with the company.
Built into the revamped search engine is Microsoft's AI chatbot, Copilot, which can perform a number of tasks the old Bing never dreamed of, like suggesting recipes, writing poems, conducting image-based search queries, and making restaurant reservations. Copilot was formerly called Bing Chat.
Microsoft's Bing was launched in 2009, more than a decade after Google's launch βΒ and though it's come a long way since then, Bing still holds a fraction of the market share compared to Google.
And though Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella once raved that Copilot would "fundamentally transform our relationship with technology," the AI assistant has struggled to live up to the hype, both inside and outside the company.
Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of how to access and use the new Bing with Copilot.
Go to Bing.com/new in your internet browser.
Note: You don't need to download Microsoft's web browser, Edge, but if you do, Copilot is integrated directly into the browser, with an icon in the top-right corner that lets you chat with the AI companion.
Bing/Microsoft
One option is to click "Try now" underneath the heading "Bing generative search," located directly below the general search bar on the Bing homepage.
Bing/Microsoft
Bing/Microsoft
You can also type in your own query, like "How to paint a bathroom," and, depending on the query you search, the results will offer helpful sections including relevant videos, instructions, and, in this case, a section on the side for the best paint to use on bathroom cabinets.
Bing/Microsoft
Another option is to click "Copilot" in the bar at the very top of the Bing homepage.
Bing/Microsoft
In the "Message Copilot" text field at the bottom of the page, you can type something you need help with, like, for example, "Write me a poem," or "plants that survive with minimal light." The chatbot will quickly give you a detailed response β for example, it offered 10 options for plants that don't need much light.
Copilot/Microsoft
Spencer Tirey/Getty Images
After a brutal year of layoffs in 2023, companies this year have continued to cut jobs across tech, media, finance, manufacturing, and retail.
Tech titans like Meta, IBM, Google, and Microsoft; finance leaders like Goldman Sachs, Citi, and BlackRock; accounting firms like PwC; entertainment behemoths like Pixar and Paramount; and corporate giants like Tesla, Dow, and Nike have all announced layoffs.
A survey in late December said nearly 40% of business leaders had expected layoffs this year, ResumeBuilder said. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees.
One major factor survey respondents cited was artificial intelligence. Around four in 10 leaders said they would conduct layoffs as they replace workers with AI. Last year, Dropbox, Google, and IBM announced job cuts related to AI.
Here are the dozens of companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2024.
Spencer Tirey/Getty Images
Cargill, the largest privately owned company in the US, is slashing 5% of its workforce.
The company, which is the world's largest agricultural commodities trader, will lay off thousands of workers from its 164,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing an internal memo it had seen.
"To strengthen Cargill's impact, we must realign our talent and resources to align with our strategy," a Cargill spokesperson told BI.
The cuts would impact workers across all professional levels from countries in Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The layoffs will not touch its executive team but will impact its "next level senior leaders," Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
"The majority of these reductions will take place this year," Chief Executive Officer Brian Sikes said in the memo, seen by Bloomberg. "They'll focus on streamlining our organizational structure by removing layers, expanding the scope and responsibilities of our managers, and reducing duplication of work."
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Microchip Technology, a chipmaker for a variety of consumer products, on Monday said it was closing a facility in Tempe, Arizona, as it deals with slower-than-anticipated orders.
The closure is expected to affect about 500 jobs from the company's total of 22,300, Microchip said. The closure will progress in stages and end in September 2025.
"While the company has taken steps to right size inventory and reduce expensesβ including temporary pay reductions and company-wide and factory shutdownsβthese measures have not been enough," a spokesperson for Microchip said in a statement on Tuesday.
Microchip also updated its revenue guidance for the quarter ending in December quarter to $1.025 billion, which is at the lower end of its earlier forecast.
The company's stock fell about 3% in after-hours trading and is down 22% year-to-date.
Rob Kim/Getty Images
The owner of publications including Esquire and Cosmopolitan is conducting a round of layoffs, The Hollywood Reporter said in a November 21 report.
The exact number of positions impacted is not clear.
"After a thorough review of our business, we've decided to reallocate resources to better support our goals and continue our focus on digital innovation while strengthening our best in class print products," Hearst Magazines president Debi Chirichella told staff in a memo obtained by THR. "We will scale back in areas that do not support our core strategy and will eliminate certain positions as we reimagine our team structures to drive long-term growth."
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
In October, Boeing said that it would cut 10% of its 170,000-strong global workforce. The reduction plan will include 2,199 employees in Washington and another 50 in Oregon, according to the company's filings.
As part of the cuts, Boeing is laying off more than 400 workers who are part of its professional aerospace labor union. The Seattle Times reported that 438 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) received pink slips.
These included engineers, scientists, analysts, technicians, and other jobs, the outlet reported.
In a note to employees on October 11, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Boeing was in a "difficult position" and that "restoring our company requires tough decisions."
The layoffs come at a difficult time for Boeing. Its share price has fallen more than 40% since the start of the year as it grapples with the fallout from aΒ seven-week strikeΒ and technical faults like a door plug coming off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max midflight in January.
Representatives of Boeing and the SPEEA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
ExxonMobil is cutting about 400 employees from Pioneer Natural Resources, the oil and gas company it acquired earlier this year.
The cuts will come in seven stages and will be completed in May 2026, Exxon said in a notice to the Texas Workforce Commission.
The cuts represent almost 20% of Pioneer's pre-merger workforce and will mostly affect employees in Pioneer's suburban Dallas offices, the notice said.
Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
AMD confirmed it would be reducing its global staff, which numbered around 26,000 total employees as of December 2023.
β³As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps that will unfortunately result in reducing our global workforce by approximately 4%," an AMD representative said in a statement to Business Insider. "We are committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them through this transition."
The cuts are reportedly targeting sales and marketing roles in areas like consumer PC and gaming PC, according to Bloomberg.
The computer chipmaker is focusing efforts on the artificial intelligence industry as it chases rival Nvidia in the GPU market. In October, AMD raised its 2024 GPU sales estimates from its initial $4.5 billion to over $5 billion.
Pavlo Gonchar via Getty Images
Online education site Chegg is laying off staff for the second time this year as generative AI platforms obliterate its business model.
Chegg said it is cutting 319 employees, or 21% of its staff, as it faces strong competition from platforms like ChatGPT. The company slashed global headcount by 23% in June.
"The speed and scale of Google's AIO rollout and student adoption of generative AI products have negatively impacted our industry and our business," Nathan Schultz, Chegg's CEO, said in an earnings release. The company reported a loss of $212.6 million for the third quarter.
Chegg's stock has fallen nearly 85% since the start of this year.
Smith Collection/Gado
Genetic testing company 23andMe is cutting 200 employees, or 40% of its workforce, to reduce costs and refocus its business.
The Bay Area-based company is also discontinuing further development of all its therapeutics programs, it said in a mid-November statement.
Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe's CEO and cofounder, has been trying to take the struggling company private since April.
23andMe debuted on the stock market in 2021 but fallen from its peak valuationΒ of $6 billion β its market cap is now north of $100 million. Financial and strategic missteps,Β as well as high-profile user data hacks, have dragged the company down.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, Zulily, and other brands revealed its decision to slash a fifth of its staff in an October SEC filing.
The workplace reduction was taken to create a more "variable, leverageable cost structure" and to help align the company with its "asset-light business that supports an affinity and data monetization model with a strong technology focus," Beyond Inc. said in the filing.
The cuts are estimated to save roughly $20 million annually in fixed costs and are expected to be "substantially implemented" in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The news came shortly after Beyond Inc. and Kirkland announced a partnership that means physical Bed Bath & Beyond stores will return in smaller-format "neighborhood" locations.
Chesnot/Getty
Meta is eliminating some roles on units including Instagram, WhatsApp, and its VR and AR division Reality Labs.
"A few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy," a Meta spokesperson told BI on October 17. "This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles."
It's unclear how many roles will be affected, but Meta has trimmed its staff significantly in the year and a half, with more than 20,000 job cuts since 2022. CEO Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed 2023 a "year of efficiency" at the company, and continued cost-cutting measures this year as the tech giant gets flatter in structure.
Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
TikTok is cutting employees in various locations as part of changes to its content-moderation strategy.
A spokesperson for the China-owned company told Reuters in October that 80% of content that violates its policy is now removed through automated technology.
The company did not provide details on the exact number of positions that it eliminated but told Reuters the cuts would affect "several hundred" employees.
Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images
Big Four accounting firm PwC is cutting 1,800 workers, which is about 2.5% of its staff. The cuts will impact staffers ranging from associates to managing directors β half of them offshore. Those affected by the cuts will be informed in October.
In an emailed statement to Business Insider, Tim Grady, PwC's US chief operating officer, said, "To remain competitive and position our business for the future, we are continuing to transform
areas of our firm and are aligning our workforce to better support our strategy, including attracting and moving the right talent and skill sets to the areas where we need them most. Right now, we are focused on running our business well and adapting to meet the needs of our clients and the rapidly changing market."
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Nike announced its cost-cutting plans in a December 2023 earnings call, discussing a slow growth in sales. The call subsequently resulted in Nike's stock plunging.
"We are seeing indications of more cautious consumer behavior around the world," Nike Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said in December.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
On January 10, Google laid off hundreds of workers in its central engineering division and members of its hardware teams β including those working on its voice-activated assistant.
In an email to some affected employees, the company encouraged them to consider applying for open positions at Google if they want to remain employed. April 9 was the last day for those unable to secure a new position, the email said.
The tech giant laid off thousands throughout 2023, beginning with a 6% reduction of its global workforce β about 12,000 people β last January.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Discord employees learned about the layoffs in an all-hands meeting and a memo sent by CEO Jason Citron in early January.
"We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020," Citron said in the memo. "As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated."
In August 2023, Discord reduced its headcount by 4%. According to CNBC, the company was valued at $15 billion in 2021.
Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images
The layoffs announced in January are part of a larger Citigroup initiative to restructure the business and could leave the company with a remaining head count of 180,000 β excluding its Mexico operations.
In an earnings call that month, the bank said that layoffs could save the company up to $2.5 billion after it suffered a "very disappointing" final quarter last year.
NurPhoto/Getty Images
Twitch announced on January 10 that it would cut 500 jobs, affecting over a third of the employees at the live-streaming company.
CEO Dan Clancy announced the layoffs in a memo, telling staff that while the company has tried to cut costs, the operation is "meaningfully" bigger than necessary.
"As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible," Clancy wrote. "Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch."
Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress
Larry Fink, BlackRock's chief executive, and Rob Kapito, the firm's president, announced in January that the layoffs would affect around 600 people from its workforce of about 20,000.
However, the company has plans to expand in other areas to support growth in its overseas markets.
"As we prepare for 2024 and this very exciting but distinctly different landscape, businesses across the firm have developed plans to reallocate resources," the company leaders said in a memo.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
In the fashion company's January announcement, COO and president Anushka Salinas said she will also be leaving the firm, Fast Company reported.
Sutro Software
Around 1,800 jobs at the video game software company will be affected by the layoffs announced, Reuters reported in January.
ullstein bild Dtl/ Getty
In a January 23 memo, CEO Jamie Iannone told employees that the eBay layoffs will affect about 9% of the company's workforce.
Iannone told employees that layoffs were necessary as the company's "overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business."
The company also plans to scale back on contractors.
SOPA Images/Getty Images
Microsoft will be laying off hundreds of employees in its Xbox gaming division, Bloomberg first reported in September.
The job cuts will mainly affect workers in corporate and support functions, the outlet reported, citing a memo sent by Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer.
However, he reportedly added that the company is not planning to close any studios or remove any games or devices.
This comes after the company also slashed 1,900 workers at Activision, Xbox, and ZeniMax in late January.
Nearly three months after Microsoft acquired video game firm Activision Blizzard, the company announced layoffs in its gaming divisions. The layoffs mostly affect employees at Activision Blizzard.
Xbox in May also reportedly offered some employees voluntary severance packages after shutting three units and absorbing a fourth earlier in the month.
Plexi Images/Glasshouse Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Salesforce announced a round of layoffs that the company says will affect 1% of its global workforce, The Journal reported in late January.
The cuts followed a wave of cuts at the cloud giant last year. In 2023, Marc Benioff's company laid off about 10% of its total workforce β or roughly 7,000 jobs. The CEO said the company over-hired during the pandemic.
Kimberly White/Getty Images
The company behind the Roomba Vacuum announced layoffs in late January around the same time Amazon decided not to go through with its proposed acquisition of the company, the Associated Press reported.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The UPS layoffs will affect 14% of the company's 85,000 managers and could save the company $1 billion in 2024, UPS CEO Carol TomΓ© said during a January earnings call.
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Announced in late January, this round of layoffs will affect about 2,500 employees at the payment processing company.
"We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," CEO Alex Chriss wrote in a January memo. "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth."
SOPA Images/ Getty
The digital-access-management company announced its plans for a "restructuring plan intended to improve operating efficiencies and strengthen the Company's commitment to profitable growth" in an SEC filing in February.
The cuts will impact roughly 400 employees.
Okta CEO Todd McKinnon told staff in a memo that "costs are still too high," CNBC reported.
Snapchat, Tyler Le/Insider
The company behind Snapchat announced in February that it's reducing its global workforce by 10%, according to an SEC filing.
Reuters
The cosmetics company announced in February that it would be cutting 3% to 5% of its roles as part of a restructuring plan.
Estee Lauder reportedly employed about 62,000 employees around the world as of June 30, 2023.
Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
The electronic signature company said in an SEC filing in February that most of the cuts will be in its sales and marketing divisions.
Kena Betancur
Zoom announced 150 job losses in February, which amounted to about 2% of its workforce. It had announced it was laying off 1,300 people the previous February.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP
In February, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish sent a memo to employees announcing that 800 jobs β about 3% of its workforce β were being cut.
Deadline obtained the memo less than a month after reporting plans for layoffs at Paramount. The announcement comes on the heels of Super Bowl LVIII reaching record-high viewership across CBS, Paramount+, and Nickelodeon, and Univision.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Morgan Stanley is laying off several hundred employees in its wealth-management division, the Wall Street Journal reported in February, representing roughly 1% of the team.
The wealth-management division has seen some slowdown at the start of 2024, with net new assets down by about 8% from a year ago. The layoffs mark the first major move by newly-installed CEO Ted Pick, who took the reins from James Gorman on January 1.
Business Wire
An Expedia spokesperson told BI that it was implementing cutbacks, as part of an operational review, that were expected to impact 1,500 roles this year.
The company's product and technology division is set to be the worst hit, a report from GeekWire said, citing an internal memo CEO Peter Kern sent to employees in late February.
"While this review will result in the elimination of some roles, it also allows the company to invest in core strategic areas for growth," the spokesperson said.
"Consultation with local employee representatives, where applicable, will occur before making any final decisions," they added.
NurPhoto/Getty Images
The cuts at Sony Interactive Entertainment swept through its game-making teams at PlayStation Studios.
Insomniac Games, which developed the hit Spider-Man video game series, as well as Naughty Dog, the developers behind Sony's flagship 'The Last of Us' video games' were hit by the cuts, the company announced on February 27.
All of PlayStation's London studio will be shuttered, according to the proposal.
"Delivering and sustaining social, online experiences β allowing PlayStation gamers to explore our worlds in different ways β as well as launching games on additional devices such as PC and Mobile, requires a different approach and different resources," PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst wrote.
Hulst added that some games in development will be shut down, though he didn't say which ones.
In early February, Sony said it missed its target for selling PlayStation 5 consoles. The earnings report sent shares tumbling and the company's stock lost about $10 billion in value.
Eugene Gologursky/Stringer/Gr
On February 27, the dating app company announced that it would be reducing its staff due to "future strategic priorities" for its business, per a statement.
The cuts will impact about 30% of its about 1,200 person workforce or about 350 roles, a representative for Bumble told BI by email.
"We are taking significant and decisive actions that ensure our customers remain at the center of everything we do as we relaunch Bumble App, transform our organization and accelerate our product roadmap," Bumble Inc CEO Lidiane Jones said in a statement.
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Electronic Arts is laying off about 670 workers, equating to 5% of its workforce, Bloomberg reported in late February.
The gaming firm axed two mobile games earlier in February, which it described as a difficult decision in a statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz.
CEO Andrew Wilson reportedly told employees in a memo that it would be "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry."
Wilson also said in the memo that the cuts came as a result of shifting customer needs and a refocusing of the company, Bloomberg reported.
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IBM's chief communications officer Jonathan Adashek told employees on March 12 that it would be cutting staff, CNBC reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
An IBM spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement that the cuts follow a broader workforce action the company announced during its earnings call in January.
"In 4Q earnings earlier this year, IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge that would represent a very low single-digit percentage of IBM's global workforce, and we expect to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with," they said.
IBM has also been clear about the impact of AI on its workforce. In May 2023, IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna said the company expected to pause hiring on roles that could be replaced by AI, especially in areas like human resources and other non-consumer-facing departments.
"I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," Krishna told Bloomberg at the time.
Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs from its cloud division known as Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg reported on April 3.
The reduction will impact employees on the sales and marketing team and those working on tech for its retail stores, Bloomberg reported.
"We've identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.
On March 26, Amazon announced another round of job cuts after the company said it was slashing 'several hundred' jobs at its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions earlier this year to refocus on more profitable products.
"We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact," Mike Hopkins, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told employees in January.
This year's cuts follow the largest staff layoff in the company's history. In 2023, the tech giant laid off 18,000 workers.
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Apple slashed its California workforce by more than 600 employees in April.
The cuts came after Apple decided to withdraw from its car and smartwatch display projects.
The tech giant filed a series of notices to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification program. One of the addresses was linked to a new display development office, while the others were for the company's EV effort, Bloomberg reported.
Apple officially shut down its decadelong EV project in February. At the time, Bloomberg reported that some employees would move to generative AI, but others would be laid off.
Bloomberg noted that the layoffs were likely an undercount of the full scope of staff cuts, as Apple had staff working on these projects in other locations.
In late August, Bloomberg reported that Apple was slashing 100 jobs in its services group, citing people familiar with the matter.
The layoffs mainly involved people working on the Apple Books app and the Apple Bookstore, Bloomberg reported. Cuts were also made to other service teams like Apple News, the outlet added.
Representatives for Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside normal business hours.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a memo to employees on April 14, at nearly midnight in California, informing them of the company's plan to cut over 10% of its global workforce.
In his companywide memo, Musk cited "duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas" as the reason behind the reductions.
An email sent to terminated employees, obtained by BI, read: "Effective now, you will not need to perform any further work and therefore will no longer have access to Tesla systems and physical locations."
On April 29, Musk reportedly sent an email stating the need for more layoffs at Tesla. He also announced the departure of two executives and said that their reports would also be let go. Six known Tesla executives have left the company since layoffs began in April.
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Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, said on April 16 that it would be "eliminating several projects" and reducing its workforce by about 5%.
The move β a part of its larger "cost reduction program" β will cost the video game publisher up to $200 million. It's expected to be completed by December 31.
As of March 2023, the company said it employed approximately 11,580 full-time workers.
Getty/Ilya S. Savenok
Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down, the company announced May 2. Along with his departure, the fitness company is also laying off about 400 workers.
McCarthy is leaving his role just two years after replacing John Foley as CEO and president in 2022. Peloton said the changes are expected to reduce annual expenses by over $200 million by the end of fiscal 2025 as part of a larger restructuring plan.
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Careers site Indeed says it will lay off roughly 1,000 employees, or 8% of its workforce, as it looks to simplify its organization.
CEO Chris Hyams took responsibility for "how we got here" in a memo in May but said the company is not yet set up for growth after last year's global hiring slowdown caused multiple quarters of declining sales.
Hyams said the latest cuts will be more concentrated in the US and primarily affect R&D and Go-to-Market teams. It comes after last year's across-the-board reduction ofΒ 2,200Β workers.
Kena Betancur/VIEWpress via Getty Images
Retail giant Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking remote employees to come to work, The Wall Street Journal reported in May, citing people familiar with the matter.
Workers in smaller offices, such as those in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto, are also being asked to move to central locations like Walmart's corporate headquarters in Arkansas or those in New Jersey or California, the Journal reported.
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Under Armour confirmed it was conducting layoffs in its quarterly earnings report, which was released May 16.
The company said it will pay out employee severance and benefits expenses of roughly $15 million in cash-related and $7 million in non-cash charges this year related to a restructuring plan, with close to half of that occurring in the current fiscal quarter.
"This is not where I envisaged Under Armour playing at this point in our journey," CEO Kevin Plank told investors on the company's full-year earnings call.Β "That said, we'll use this turbulence to reconstitute our brand and business, giving athletes, retail customers and shareholders bigger and better reasons to care about and believe in Under Armour's potential."
Disney/Pixar
Disney's Pixar Animation Studios is cutting 175 people, about 14% of its staff, Reuters reported.
The cuts started on May 21 as the studio returns to its focus on feature-length movies. Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who was axed in 2022, had increased staff across studios to create more content for the company's streaming service, Disney+.
Pixar cut 75 jobs last year, Reuters previously reported, part of a larger restructuring across Disney.
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In a regulatory filing, Lucid Motors said it would lay off about 400 employees as part of a restructuring plan that should be complete by the end of the third quarter.
"I'm confident Lucid will deliver the world's best SUV and dramatically expand our total addressable market, but we aren't generating revenue from the program yet," CEO Peter Rawlinson said in an email to employees obtained by TechCrunch.
The cuts come ahead of Lucid's launch of its first electric SUV later this year. It comes over a year after the California-based company laid off 1,300 employees, TechCrunch previously reported.
Rick Wilking/Reuters
John Deere, maker of the iconic green-and-yellow tractors, is laying off over 600 employees at factories in Illinois and Iowa, the AP reported July 1.
In May, John Deere said sales fell for the third consecutive quarter and projected that the declines would continue in the second half of its fiscal year.
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London-based luxury retailer Burberry is expected to cut hundreds of jobs in the coming weeks, the Telegraph reported July 6.
Employees learned about the cuts in late June when they were told in a Zoom meeting that their roles could be eliminated or that they would need to apply for other jobs, according to the Telegraph.
Chris Helgren/Reuters
Intuit announced on July 10 that it's cutting its workforce by 10%. The layoffs will affect 1,800 employees nationwide, but the company plans to hire 1,800 new employees in "key areas" like engineering, InvestorPlace reports.
The refocus on other areas is following a shift in focus on AI within the company, according to the outlet.
Intuit's stock dropped by 4.01% on July 10 after the company announced the layoffs.
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Match Group, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, said on July 30 that it would reduce its global workforce by about 6%, or about 156 employees because it is exiting the livestreaming business.
Match said it would remove the livestreaming service from its app Plenty of Fish and sunset the Hakuna app, which focuses on Korea and Japan.
The reduction in workforce is expected to save the company $13 million in annual costs.
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Deadline and Bloomberg reported in July that Disney was making cuts across its TV division, to the tune of roughly 140 jobs β or 2% of the staff at Disney Entertainment Television (DET).
Layoffs will impact National Geographic, owned television stations, the marketing and publicity departments, and Freeform, per a source close to the matter, which notes no teams have been eliminated.
While Disney's cable TV business generates billions, it's on the decline, Bloomberg reports, and the company is seeking to cut costs.
Last year, Disney slashed 7,000 jobs across multiple rounds of layoffs as part of a strategy implemented by returning CEO Bob Iger.
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Intel plans to cut thousands of jobs in response to a second-quarter earnings slump, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, citing unnamed people familiar with the move.
It was officially announced on August 1, as it posted Q2 earnings. The company intends to reduce its workforce by 15% by the end of 2024.
"Our Q2 financial performance was disappointing, even as we hit key product and process technology milestones," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a statement. "Second-half trends are more challenging than we previously expected, and we are leveraging our new operating model to take decisive actions that will improve operating and capital efficiencies while accelerating our IDM 2.0 transformation."
Intel's stock was down following the lackluster earnings.
The layoffs come after the chip maker laid off about 5% of its workforce last year, bringing its head count down to around 124,000, Bloomberg reported.
During the last round of layoffs, announced in October 2022, Intel faced a drop in demand for processors for personal computers and estimated the layoffs would save $10 billion in costs by 2025, per Bloomberg.
Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Eugene Gologursky
Diet program creator WW International, formerly WeightWatchers, plans to lay off employees, it said in an earnings call on August 1.
The company did not specify the number of jobs it will cut. But the layoffs will largely focus on corporate positions, including a 40% cut in roles above and at the vice president level.
The cuts are expected to save the company $60 million, the company's chief financial officer said.
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Dell is cutting jobs on its sales team, Bloomberg reported. It wasn't immediately clear how many jobs Dell planned to eliminate.
In a memo announcing the cuts, company executives said that the choice was part of a restructuring to focus more on selling AI products and data center services, Bloomberg reported.
Dell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI, but a spokesman told Bloomberg: "Through a reorganization of our go-to-market teams and an ongoing series of actions, we are becoming a leaner company."
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Paramount Global is planning to cut about 2,000 jobs ahead of its merger with Skydance Media, CNBC reported.
The company identified $500 million in cost savings as it prepared to join forces with Skydance, totalling about 15% of its US workforce, according to the outlet.
The cuts will begin in a few weeks and will mostly be finished by the end of 2024. Paramount employees in marketing and communications, finance, legal, technology, and other support functions have been targeted, the company said on an earnings call.
The cuts come about a month after Paramount agreed to merge with Skydance. Paramount shares jumped more than 5% after hours.
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In August, the owner of Jeep and Dodge announced it is cutting 2,450 factory workers from its Warren Truck assembly plant outside Detroit.
The layoffs come because the company is ending production of the Ram 1500 Classic truck, Stellantis said. These factory cuts came after white-collar jobs were axed earlier this year.
On March 22, the company said it would lay off employees on its engineering, technology, and software teams in an effort to cut costs, CNBC reported.
Stellantis announced plans for another round of layoffs on July 30, according to Bloomberg. The company is offering voluntary buyouts to non-unionized US employees to "assist those interested in pursuing other career options or retirement," Stellantis said in a message seen by Bloomberg.
The job cuts, the total number of which remains unknown, come after a difficult first half of the year, with unit sales sinking by 16% in the US.
Courtesy of Sonos
The audio equipment company said it slashed roughly 100 jobs in August. The layoffs significantly targeted its marketing division, The Verge reported.
CEO Patrick Spence said in a statement to BI that the company is now focusing on departing employees and "ensuring they have the support they need."
"This action was a difficult, but necessary, measure to ensure continued, meaningful investment in Sonos' product roadmap while setting Sonos up for long term success," Spence said.
Sonos is also reducing some of its customer support offices and will close one in Amsterdam later this year, according to The Verge.
The company previously cut around 7% of its workforce in June 2023, a month after it announced a 24% revenue drop in the second quarter compared to the previous year.
REUTERS/Mike Blake
In February, networking company Cisco announced it was slashing 5% of its workforce, upward of 4,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported.
The company said it was restructuring after an industry-wide pullback in corporate tech spending β which execs said they expect to continue through the first half of the year.
On August 14, in a filing, Cisco said it would further reduce its global workforce by 7% amid sales and revenue declines.Β ReutersΒ reported earlier that the company was slashing around 4,000 jobs as it shifted attention to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Per its latest annual filing, Cisco had about 85,000 employees as of July 2023.
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Long-troubled GoPro is laying off 15% of its 925 current employees, the company said in a filing.
The action sports camera maker reported a net loss of nearly $48 million in the quarter that ended in June, adding to a streak of consecutive losses.
The company laid off 4% of its staff in March.
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Oil giant Shell will slash its workforce in oil and gas exploration and development by 20%, according to an August 29 report from Reuters. Company sources reportedly cited intentions to cut costs in the highly profitable segments due to "deep cuts in renewables and low-carbon businesses."
Exploration, wells development, and subsurface units will face hundreds of layoffs globally, with offices in Houston, The Hauge, and Britain expected to take the biggest hit, the sources told Reuters.
A Shell spokesperson would not comment directly on the layoffs but told Business Insider that, "Shell aims to create more value with less emissions by focusing on performance, discipline and simplification across the business."
"That includes delivering structural operating cost reductions of $2-3 billion by the end of 2025, as announced at our Capital Markets Day event in June 2023," the spokesperson added.
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The global investment bank is set to cut hundreds of employees during annual reviews this year, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Goldman Sachs is targeting low performers with the intention of laying off between 3% and 4% of its global workforce, equaling somewhere between 1,300 and 1,800 people, according to the outlet.
The cuts are already underway and will continue in the coming months, one person told the outlet. Goldman typically tries to cut anywhere from 2% to 7% of employees each year, per The Journal.
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Goop is cutting 18% of its 216-person staff, citing a change to its organization, WWD wrote in September. It will now focus on beauty, fashion, and food β specifically its Goop Beauty and good.clean.goop beauty brands, G.Label clothing line, and Goop Kitchen restaurants.
That means it's moving away from wellness, home, travel, and sexual wellness, some of which are categories that once defined the brand.
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Samsung is planning to cut jobs this year, a move that will impact workers in the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa, Reuters reported.
The electronic devices maker will cut up to 30% of staff in some divisions, the report says. It is unclear how many jobs will be impacted.
Samsung told Reuters in a statement that the workforce adjustments would not impact its production staff and that no specific targets for the cuts are in place.
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Verizon is letting go of 4,800 US-based management employees in a voluntary separation program.
The company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that more than half of these employees would exit in September, while the rest will leave by the end of March 2025.
The telecommunications giant expects severance charges to cost as much as $1.9 billion before tax in the third quarter of this year.
Rebecca Cook/Reuters
General Motors is laying off 1,695 employees at its Fairfax plant in Kansas, the company said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice in mid-September.
The layoffs will begin in mid-November, and a second phase will continue in January, Reuters reported, citing a GM spokesperson. It is unclear which departments will be affected, but about 1,450 of these employees will be laid off temporarily, the spokesperson said.
In August, the carmaker laid off over 1,000 workers, or 1.3% of its workforce.
The August layoffs came primarily from GM's software and services business, which it had bulked up over the past few years. Last year, the company brought on two former Apple executives to run the unit.
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US logistics startup Flexport is laying off another 2% of its US staff this week as it aims to cut costs and reorganizes its retail delivery business.
The fulfillment center-focused cuts amount to about 40 people and were first reported by The Information, citing an internal memo.
In January, Flexport cut 15% of its staff, or around 400 people. Those cuts came after Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen initiated a 20% reduction of its workforce of an estimated 2,600 employees in October 2023.
Flexport kicked off 2024 with the announcement that it raised $260 million from Shopify and made "massive progress toward returning Flexport to profitability."
Facebook/Adobe Stock/BI
New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank will cut 8% of its workforce, or 700 jobs, as it aims to revamp its business, the company's CEO, Joseph Otting, said in a statement on October 17.
An additional 1,200 employees will be laid off at the end of the quarter after the company sells its residential mortgage business.
NYCB is also changing its name to Flagstar Financial as part of the turnaround efforts after losses from its commercial real estate portfolio.
Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch.
Chief, which has positioned itself as the nation's largest network of senior executive women, confirmed to Business Insider on October 20 that it has shed roles.
The company told BI that the cuts, which had already been announced internally, mainly impacted "our technology and administrative functions."
"Like many companies, we are balancing growth and profitability," the spokesperson added.
In a June press release, the American company said 40% of its members were C-suite executives and that they represent more than 10,000 companies.
In April 2023, Chief cut 14% of its workforce in what the founders called a "challenging economic environment," TechCrunch reported at the time.
This January, the company said it would close its London offices β opened one year previously β to refocus on the American market.
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Visa plans to lay off around 1,400 workers this year, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 29.
In a statement provided to BI, a Visa spokesperson said the company expects to grow its workforce for the foreseeable future but that it is continuously evolving to serve clients, innovate, and grow, "which can lead to the elimination of some roles."
"When this happens, we are committed to supporting our employees," the spokesperson added.
Workers affected by layoffs included employees and contractors, with more than 1,000 in technology roles, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation. Visa has more than 30,000 employees.
Reuters/ Mike Blake
The cloud storage company is laying off 528 employees, targeting "over-invested or underperforming" areas, CEO Drew Houston announced in an email sent to employees.
"As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and I'm truly sorry to those impacted by this change," Houston wrote.
The Dropbox chief cited diminishing demand and macro headwinds in the company's core business, as well as excessive management levels, as contributing factors.
The layoffs come as the company is undergoing a "transitional period" with its growing File Sync and Share (FSS) business and greater efforts on products like Dash, Dropbox's AI-powered work assistant.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Consulting giant KPMG informed about 330 people, or less than 4%, in its US audit workforce that they would be laid off within the next couple of weeks, a spokesperson told BI.
"The actions reflect our ongoing focus to align the size, shape and skills of our workforce to the market, while addressing continued low levels of attrition," the spokesperson said in a written statement.
This follows an earlier round of layoffs in March, as well as another one last summer, that also affected the company's audit unit, similarly due to low levels of voluntary exits, the spokesperson said.
Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider
Japanese automobile giant Nissan said during its November earnings release that it would be cutting 9,000 jobs in an attempt to save money.
The car company reported lower revenue for the period, which it attributed to higher selling and production costs. Nissan said it brought in about 32 million yen, or $208 million, at the end of the first half of the fiscal year β a steep drop from the $1.4 billion it reported for the same time last year.
In addition to a 20% production capacity reduction, CEO Makoto Uchida will give up 50% of his compensation and other executives have taken voluntary pay cuts.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California is cutting its workforce for the second time this year.
In November, the agency announced it plans to lay off 325 employees, or about 5% of its workforce. The cuts follow a round of layoffs in February, where JPL cut 530 employees.
"Although we can never have perfect insight into the future, I sincerely believe that after this action we will be at a more stable workforce level moving forward," JPL Director Laurie Leshin wrote in a company-wide memo.
Leshin added that the reductions affect all areas of JPL including technical, project, business, and support areas. The layoffs are the result of "continued funding challenges" Leshin wrote.
JPL is responsible for some of NASA's most daring feats like landing the Curiosity rover on Mars and guiding Voyagers 1 and 2 into interstellar space.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Associated Press in November announced plans to reduce its staff by 8% through a combination of buyouts and layoffs.
"This is about ensuring AP's important role as the only truly independent news organization at scale during a period of transformation in the media industry," The Associated Press said in a statement about the cuts.
The union representing a portion of AP members indicated 121 of its guild members would be offered buyouts before layoffs began, per AP.
Less than half of the expected cuts will involve news employees, the outlet reported, and though the AP has bureaus around the world, a majority of the staff reduction will occur within the United States.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Sotheby's cut 100 employees from its New York offices on Tuesday, the company confirmed to multiple publications. The layoffs include back-office workers, junior staffers, and specialists, reports said.
The layoffs come as the auction market has experienced a recent slowdown in sales and earnings. The company also previously cut about 50 employees in its London location, Art News reported.
Sotheby's recently closed a deal in October for Abu Dhabi investment company ADQ to acquire a minority stake in the company. ADQ said in a press release about the deal that the $1 billion investment was meant to support Sotheby's domestic and international expansion plans.
Sotheby's did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
REUTERS/ Shannon Stapleton
Wells Fargo filed two WARN notices on December 4 sharing plans to lay off over 700 workers in Oregon, including 500 people from its Hillsboro location and 221 employees from its Salem office. It also plans to shut down both offices.
The company said in its filing that it verbally notified employees of the changes on December 3, and plans to deliver formal notices for displacement in the fourth quarter of 2025. Wells Fargo said it will provide more details on impacted roles at a later time.
Those who don't get relocated into other roles within the business are eligible to receive severance based on years of service and their opportunity to use the company health plan at active rates, the filing said.
"We continue to bring the majority of our non-customer facing positions together in locations best suited for our customers and our company," a Wells Fargo spokesperson told BI. "This effort does not impact our commitment to serving customers and clients."
Security and privacy advocates have long warned that sensitive medical data can be used to train AI models, and can expose personal data down the line.
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Googleβs Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X (and Googleβs official account), a βmemoryβ feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPTβs memory, Geminiβs adds context to the current conversation. For example, tell Gemini to [β¦]
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