The sad news was announced Wednesday in a company memo from entertainment chief Mike Hopkins, who cited the need to reduce costs ‘to deliver even more breakthrough movies, TV shows, and live sports’ as the reason for the workforce cuts; 500 workers will also be cut at Amazon’s Twitch live streaming platform.
Amazon is kicking off the new year by laying off “several hundred” employees at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, the streamer and producer, respectively, of such projects as Saltburn, Hazbin Hotel, The Boys, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and countless more, according to Variety. The cuts are in addition to the massive layoffs between 2022 and 2023 that resulted in over 27,000 employees being terminated.
The cuts were revealed in a note entertainment chief Mike Hopkins sent to staffers on Wednesday. No details were provided on which departments would be affected.
“Throughout the past year, we’ve looked at nearly every aspect of our business with an eye towards improving our ability to deliver even more breakthrough movies, TV shows, and live sports in a personalized, easy to use entertainment experience for our global customers,” Hopkins wrote in the memo. “As a result, 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. As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.”
“This is a difficult decision to make and one that my leadership team and I do not take lightly,” Hopkins added. “It is hard to say goodbye to talented Amazonians who’ve made meaningful contributions on behalf of our customers, team and business. Thank you for your dedication and work. To help with the transition, we are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional benefits as applicable by country, and external job placement support.”
In addition to the cuts at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, 500 workers will be let go at Amazon’s live streaming platform Twitch. CEO Dan Clancy addressed the Twitch community Wednesday to provide details.
“I know many of you are wondering why this is happening. Over the last year, we’ve been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient,” Clancy wrote. “Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business. Last year we paid out over $1 billion to streamers. So while the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we’re at today. As with many other companies in the tech space, we are now sizing our organization based upon the current scale of our business and conservative predictions of how we expect to grow in the future.”
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