Jonah Peretti is the latest tech CEO to send an apology email as BuzzFeed, Inc. (Nasdaq: BZFD) moves to lay off 12% of its workforce, or about 180 employees.
In his letter, Peretti cited “a combination of worsening macroeconomic conditions and the ongoing audience shift to vertical video” as the reasons for the decline in the company’s revenue.
“Unfortunately reducing our workforce is an essential part of cost cutting,” Peretti wrote. “Staff salaries are the single largest cost in the company.”
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Peretti laid down broad strokes of the company’s priorities following the job cuts, saying that BuzzFeed would invest “in areas that will drive growth,” and build “a more robust creator business.”
According to reports, the cuts will impact jobs in sales, tech, studio production, and content teams at BuzzFeed.com and Complex Networks, which the company acquired last year. This round of layoffs will not affect Tasty, BuzzFeed News, and HuffPost, the latter two have seen heavy cuts in the last two years.
1.7% of BuzzFeed News’s workforce was let go in March following the company’s first earnings report since going public in December. HuffPost, meanwhile, lost 47 staffers in the US and its entire operation in Canada in March 2021 — less than a month after being acquired by the company from Verizon Media.
BuzzFeed joins a growing list of major companies slashing jobs in the past few months amid an already dark and still darkening economic outlook.
BuzzFeed last traded at US$1.07 on the Nasdaq, down $86.37 year-over-year.
Information for this briefing was found via Twitter, CNN, The Guardian, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
