Airbnb announced that it is laying off around a quarter of its workforce, citing revenue declines and a need to curtail costs. TechCrunch reports: In the note, written by Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky, the company said that 1,900 employees will be laid off, or 25.3% of its 7,500 workers. The layoffs will impact a number of internal product groups, including Transportation and Airbnb Studios, efforts that will be placed on hold, and its Hotels and Lux work, which will be “scale[d] back.” The company declined to break down per-country totals for the layoffs in a phone call with TechCrunch, but its memo did note that its staffing cuts are “mapped to a more focused business.” The former startup appears to be narrowing its efforts, targeting core operations and shedding more experimental and costly endeavours. According to Chesky’s missive, Airbnb anticipates its 2020 revenue coming in under 50% of 2019’s total; Airbnb saw around $4.8 billion in revenue last year, according to reports. The report adds: “Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the rest of the world.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot