Tag: Layoffs

Singapore – Vice Media Group has announced that it will cease publishing new content on its main news site Vice.com, as well as announcing more layoffs across its staff, according to an internal memo Bruce Dixon, group CEO at Vice Media Group, sent out across its employees.

According to the memo, Vice Media will look into partnering with established media companies to distribute their digital content, including news, on their global platforms, as the company fully transitions to a studio model.

“After careful consideration and discussion with the board, we have decided to make some fundamental changes to our strategic vision at Vice. We create and produce outstanding original content true to the Vice brand. However, it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Dixon said.

While he did not specify how many employees, Dixon said that the company will be ‘eliminating several hundred positions’. He also noted that Refinery 29, Vice’s standalone website focused on young women stories, will remain as a standalone business. The memo did not mention, however, on the current standing of Virtue, Vice’s in-house creative agency.

“I know that saying goodbye to our valued colleagues is difficult and feels overwhelming, but this is the best path forward for Vice as we position the company for long-term creative and financial success. Our financial partners are supportive and have agreed to invest in this operating model going forward. We will emerge stronger and more resilient as we embark on this new phase of our journey,” he added. 

The company had previously announced bankruptcy earlier in 2023, and was acquired by investment companies Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital for US$350m. Prior to this, it had also announced several layoffs, including the entirety of its newsroom team in Asia-Pacific.

Aside from Vice Media Group, the media industry has been taking a hit this year, with media entities such as Time, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Forbes, and Business Insider all announcing staff reductions earlier this year. In APAC, CNN Philippines recently shut down due to financial losses, effectively laying off its entire workforce.

Singapore – Global home appliance manufacturer Electrolux has announced that it is shutting down its regional office in Singapore and is aiming to relocate its APAC and MEA commercial leadership to Thailand, MARKETECH APAC has learned recently.

In an exclusive statement sent by Samar Refai, communications director, APAC & MEA transformation at Electrolux, she stated that with this office closure, there will be several regional employees who will be laid off. However, they did not specify the number of employees who will be affected. The company has promised that the affected employees will be offered the maximum level of support during the upcoming transition period.

“With a newly established commercial set-up for APAC & MEA, Australia and Thailand are becoming key hubs for Electrolux Group in the region. Having the regional capabilities & competencies within these hubs ensures proximity to our customers, consumers, manufacturing sites, R&D and Innovation centers,” Refai told MARKETECH APAC.

Refai also assured that despite the imminent fate of its Singapore office, Electrolux will continue to drive its important business in the APAC&MEA region focusing on growth.

“This decision has no impact, whatsoever, on the operational business & trade relations, in any of Electrolux Group’s markets in APAC & MEA, including Singapore Sales office in Braddell,” she also added.

Electrolux has recently recorded a dip in its global sales, according to its recent year-end report for the fourth quarter of 2023. In it, the company noted that organic sales decreased by 0.8% mainly driven by negative prices but also lower volumes.

“In three out of four business areas we managed to navigate this challenging market environment in a fairly good way, even if the weak market demand resulted in an earnings decline for 2023 in our European and Asia-Pacific operations,” Jonas Samuelson, president and CEO of Electrolux stated.

Electrolux’s layoffs also join other major companies who have made significant cut-offs to its Singapore offices, including Unilever and Lazada.

Singapore – Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, with primarily layoffs occurring at Activision Blizzard, and some Xbox and ZeniMax employees getting affected by the cuts, according to reports from The Verge.

Occurring just after Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company has decided to proceed with the layoffs to follow a sustainable cost structure plan that will support the growth of the business.

Alongside the layoffs, Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard, and Allen Adham, chief design officer at Blizzard, have both decided to leave the company, with a new president being appointed by Microsoft for the following week. 

Blizzard’s previously announced survival game has also been cancelled as part of these changes. Addressing this, Microsoft said that it will be “shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”

Talking about the layoffs, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft, said, “As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team.” 

“The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws,” he added. 

Notably, these layoffs come just a few months after some big Xbox leadership changes saw Sarah Bond promoted to Xbox president, leading all Xbox platform and hardware work. Matt Booty was also promoted to president of game content and studios, which includes overseeing Bethesda, ZeniMax studios, and Activision Blizzard.

Furthermore, it is also worth noting that these layoffs occur at the same month as with Riot Games, Google, Discord, Twitch, Unity, and eBay, among others.

California, United States –  Riot Games, an American video game company, has announced they will cut off 11% of their staff around the world as they make critical adjustments for the future of the company.

In a company announcement, CEO of Riot Games Dylan Jadeja and co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill stated that they will be eliminating around 530 roles globally to refocus on fewer, high-impact projects that will sustain them moving forward while cutting investments on those projects that do not make any more impact.

Employees outside the Riot’s core development teams are among those who will be affected most by the massive layoffs.

Riot also disclosed the email sent to their employees worldwide. In the email, Dylan apologised to the employees and took accountability for the sudden changes that the company is undergoing at the moment.

“Over the past several months, we’ve tried to alter our trajectory in many different ways. We asked leaders to make tradeoffs in the things their teams are working on. We rolled out hiring slowdowns and, in some cases, hiring freezes. We put an emphasis on controlling costs while strengthening our revenue growth. All of which has without a doubt been tough for our teams,” wrote Dylan in the email.

The email also included the fees and other support that Riot will offer to those whose roles are included in the layoffs.

However, aside from cutting staff, Riot Games also announced they would make changes to the games they’ve been developing so far.

The company will be placing their commitment on their core live games, which are League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift. Therefore, prioritise teams that can focus on the content, features, and updates that directly respond to these games.

However, Riot also decided to end the development of Riot Forge to refocus their efforts on the ambitious projects underway internally at the company.

They will also reduce the team designated for the development of their Legends of Runeterra game and instead shift their focus to The Path of Champions. The company deems this necessary as LoR has faced financial challenges since launch and the revenue it generates does not cover the cost of its development.

According to Dylan and Marc, “Our strategy moving forward is clear: we’re honing in on what we do best and what resonates most with you. Every endeavour, from development to storytelling to competition, will be crafted to deliver meaningful, memorable experiences with games at the centre.”

They added, “While change can bring uncertainty, it also presents opportunities for growth and innovation. We’re grateful for your ongoing support; nothing Riot has ever created would be possible without you. Your passion and engagement inspire us every day, and we’re excited to continue this journey together.”

The massive layoffs at Riot Games follow the line of widespread retrenchments in large companies and corporations in 2024. Alibaba Group’s Lazada also opened the year with sudden staff reductions in its offices in Southeast Asia, followed by multinational consumer goods company Unilever, which also announced a slew of layoffs in its Singapore office.

Singapore – Global multinational fast-moving consumer goods company Unilever has announced a slew of layoffs and role reorganisations across its team in Singapore. It is worth noting, however, that the number of employees affected by this has yet to be disclosed.

A spokesperson for Unilever’s press office in London has confirmed the news to MARKETECH APAC, stating that they are doing everything they can to support their colleagues during these times.

“As we continue to respond to the needs of our consumers faster, we have taken the strategic decision to relocate some Personal Care roles, currently based in Singapore, to our markets across Asia. A number of roles will remain in Singapore, while some roles will be impacted. We are doing everything we can to support our colleagues during this time,” a Unilever spokesperson from its Unilever press office in London told MARKETECH APAC.

Unilever has made significant layoffs in the past years, including 1,500 management jobs around in January 2022 as well as several retrenchments across its plants in New York in November 2023.

The company joins Lazada as one of the companies whose layoffs this year have also affected teams in Singapore.

Singapore – In a developing story, some Lazada top executives are reportedly among those affected by the company’s retrenchment exercises as the layoffs expand to its other markets in Southeast Asia, The Edge Singapore reported.

According to people familiar with the matter, Lazada has let go of its chief marketing officers across the various countries it serves. Among the C-suite executives affected by the retrenchment was Brigitte Daubry, its chief customer care officer at Lazada Singapore. 

The e-commerce company has also allegedly laid off a fifth of its employees in its Malaysia branch, including its chief executive officer and its chief logistics officer. Currently, there are no updates on the positions of the following top executives in their LinkedIn profiles.

Additionally, reports also said that Lazada had shut down the operations of its LazMall in Vietnam.

These fresh rounds of reported layoffs join the undisclosed number of employees that were included in Lazada Singapore’s retrenchment exercises on January 3.

Lazada Singapore, the first branch to suffer from the sudden mass layoff, is unionised under the Food, Drinks, and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), which is an affiliated union of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

In a statement issued by NTUC to Singaporean press and news sites, it expressed its disappointment in the matter and said that it had escalated the matter to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

“NTUC would like to reiterate that it is critical for companies to work with their union to ensure that a fair and equitable process is carried out to safeguard the interests of all workers, especially our Singaporean core,” NTUC said in a statement.

Furthermore, NTUC stated that “companies must exhaust all other options before making the call to retrench employees. (NTUC) also appeals to companies to be considerate about the timing of such exercises and to avoid doing such exercises during festive periods, as far as possible.”

Singapore – E-commerce company Lazada, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, faces staff reductions in its Singapore office amidst the 2024 new year transition, The Edge Singapore reported.

An employee familiar with the matter has revealed that senior and junior employees from multiple departments, including those from commercial and marketing teams, had received individual calendar meeting invites from the company’s human resources department at the end of the January 2 workday.

The anonymous employee further revealed that the layoffs, which began on January 3, are speculated to last until January 5, as the HR department has reserved all meeting rooms until the end of the week.

Additionally, Lazada Singapore has also been operating without an in-house communications department since last year.

Currently, there is no exact number as to how many employees have been laid off from the company’s Singapore unit.

The reports of layoffs come months after Lazada Singapore’s former CEO, Loh Wee Lee, left the company in August 2023. He has since been replaced by Jason Chen, who also serves as the group chief business officer at Lazada.

Singapore – Global video games company Epic Games has announced that it is laying off around 16% of its workforce, amounting to around 830 employees. This follows after the company has sold its audio distribution platform Bandcamp to Sontradr, as well as the management team of SuperAwesome acquiring most of the company back from Epic Games.

In a letter sent out by Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer at Epic Games to employees, the company is aiming at cutting costs without breaking development or their core lines of businesses so that they can continue to focus on their plans.

Some of those plans include their upcoming Fortnite Season and Fortnite Chapter 5, as well as Del Mar, Sparks, and Juno.

“Epic folks around the world have been making ongoing efforts to reduce costs, including moving to net zero hiring and cutting operating spend on things like marketing and events. But we still ended up far short of financial sustainability. We concluded that layoffs are the only way, and that doing them now and on this scale will stabilise our finances,” Sweeney said.

Moreover, they also added that they will still continue to invest in games with Fortnite first-party development, the Fortnite creator ecosystem and economy, Rocket League and Fall Guys; and services for developers including Unreal Engine for games and enterprises.

“For those still at Epic, you’ll hear more from senior leaders about the path forward for your team. Epic’s prospects for the future are strong. We have amazing game experiences across multiple platforms,” Sweeney added.

Epic Games has a presence in Asia through its outsourcing divisions in China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Moreover, multinational conglomerate Tencent has a 40% majority stake in the company.

Singapore – Regional ride-hailing and super-app Grab has announced that it is laying off 1,000 of its employees. Said update was part of the company’s restructuring effort.

In a letter sent by current Grab CEO Anthony Tan to employees, he said that the company needed to adapt to the ever-changing environment of their industry ecosystem, with cost of capital going up, directly impacting the competitive landscape.

“We believe fundamental step-changes in our operating model and cost structure are needed to build our competitive moat for the longer-term. The primary goal of this exercise is to strategically reorganise ourselves, so that we can move faster, work smarter, and rebalance our resources across our portfolio in line with our longer-term strategies,” he stated.

Tan has noted that impacted employees will receive various benefits from Grab in terms of financial, professional and medical support.

Moving forward, he said that all of these changes were made with great care and consideration from the company’s higher-ups.

“We recognise that change can be incredibly challenging, and the decisions made have been weighed with great care and consideration with all our leaders. Our priority is to support impacted Grabbers throughout this transition [and] we are committed to providing resources and assistance to help ease the process,” he concluded.

The new layoffs come after Grab underwent a massive corporate restructuring, with its co-founder Tan Hooi Ling stepping down from her operating roles, and transitioning into an advisory role for the company.

Singapore – VICE World News, the current affairs channel under digital media and broadcasting company VICE Media, has announced a wave of layoffs globally, including the entirety of its newsroom team in the Asia-Pacific region.

Natashya Gutierrez, who served as the editor-in-chief for Asia-Pacific at VICE World News, tweeted out that she is grateful for the reporting she and her team had done in the region, adding that they will always be proud of the stories they have shared throughout their stay at the company.

Other newsroom members that were affected include Alan Wong, managing editor for APAC; Sahar Habib Ghazi, editor for South Asia; Alastair McCready, editor for Asia-Pacific; journalist JC Gotinga; Greater China and East Asia reporter Rachel Cheung; Japan-based reporter Hanako Montgomery; South Asia journalist Pallavi Pundir; senior reporter Gavin Butler; Southeast Asia reporter Koh Ewe; and Thailand-based journalist Caleb Quinley.

Wall Street Journal first reported that VICE World News looks to sell itself, and recently hired an interim finance chief to commence the media buy-out.

The news comes after a recent wave of media-related layoffs globally, including from BuzzFeed News, sports news network ESPN, business media company Insider, and mass media group Vox Media.