GoPro to lay off 7% of its workforce

GoPro didn’t have a good end to 2015 and the start of 2016 isn’t shaping up to be any better for the brand. The action camera maker recently revealed that sales during the holiday quarter were “lower than anticipated” and they will be laying off seven percent of their workforce. "Over the past two years, GoPro's headcount has grown by more than 50% annually, to more than 1,500 employees at the end of 2015," the company said in a release. "To better align resources to key growth initiatives, GoPro has implemented a reduction in its workforce of approximately 7 percent."

Shares of the company have dropped from US$65 back in August to just $14 per share this week, which is $10 less of its $24 price during its public offering. And when GoPro made the announcement on Wednesday, the stock fell further to $11 per share. The company said they generated about $435 million in the fourth quarter, which was less than they expected in part because of the multiple price cuts the new Hero4 camera took (which also cost the company some $21 million). They are also expected to incur around $30 million to $35 million for excess inventory and order commitments.

Source: Mashable

Layoffs might be in Twitter’s future

After assuming the post, Twitter’s returning CEO Jack Dorsey looks to be preparing for layoffs as early as October 13^th. The company won’t address these rumours but sources for both The New York Times and Recode say that there will be some people losing their jobs soon, as to how many these would be is yet to be determined.

Recode believes that these layoffs are part of an attempt to streamline a “bloated” engineering team. While the social network has been improving its bottom line, there’s supposedly a sense among insiders that the engineering team of the company is bigger than it should be when related to its growth. The company has doubled its workforce in the past couple of years even if they’ve added around 50 percent more users.

Source: Engadget

Microsoft readying to lay off 7,800 workers from mobile phone unit

The reign of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been punctuated by massive change in management and massive layoffs - Photo from Microsoft

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

More change is afoot at Microsoft which has seen various departures in management due to recent restructuring, the ripple effect of these changes and compressions is the loss of jobs. Microsoft announced today that it will lay off 7,800 workers, majority of these coming from the declining smartphone unit, which it acquired from an already weakend Nokia just last year for US $7.2 billion. Microsoft is the third largest player in mobile behind Apple and Google, but it holds a tiny 2.5 per cent market share, with no indication of moving up.

These layoffs are separate and in addition to the expected 18,000 employees that Microsoft announced would be laid off a year ago as part of the larger restructuring plan. It must be remembered that Microsoft inherited 25,000 employees as a result of the Nokia acquistion last year. This latest development questions what the future of Windows on Mobile Phone will be. Microsoft also relayed it is writing off $7.6 billion related to its acquisition of Nokia and resulting restructuring costs which comes off as a loss for the company.

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BlackBerry cuts back its smartphone workforce

Things aren’t getting any easier for smartphone maker BlackBerry as they lay off people from their smartphone business. The Canadian company won’t say how many or where the job losses are going to be coming from but that it would affect “a number of employees around the world.” According to BlackBerry, the job cuts are a result of moves to consolidate its device software, application, and hardware business. It isn’t a secret that the company is struggling to keep up in the big smartphone market. BlackBerry could look into entering new opportunities like in the Internet of Things market or bolster the software side of their business.

Source: SlashGear