TechPression

Tag: lay off

  • Google CEO warns staff ahead of further lay-off in 2024

    Google CEO warns staff ahead of further lay-off in 2024

    Google’s CEO has warned workers that, following a round of layoffs that impacted 1,000 people, they should anticipate additional layoffs this year.

    “Some roles may be impacted,” according to a memo sent to employees by Sundar Pichai on Wednesday. In it, he stated that divisions within the tech company were still undergoing changes.

    Pichai’s memo confirmed last week’s reports of additional layoffs, which the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees at Google and its parent company Alphabet, claimed had impacted 1,000 people.

    He promised to put money into the most important projects because they have lofty goals. The truth is that they will need to make difficult decisions in order to build the infrastructure to support this investment.

    Job cuts in Google divisions like search, advertising sales, and YouTube were among the tough choices that Pichai said had to be made so far. Google has made AI a central part of its strategy, releasing new AI models like Gemini and Bard last year in response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other similar offerings.

    He claimed that the number of positions being eliminated would not equal the 12,000 laid off by Alphabet in January of last year. As of 30 September last year, the company had 182,000 employees, as stated in its most recent quarterly report.

    Read also: Google reinstates crypto ads after five-year ban

    The overall impact

    According to Pichai’s post, not every team will be affected by these role cuts because they are not as severe as last year’s reductions. He pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, tech companies like Alphabet saw a surge in demand for their services, leading to a hiring frenzy. He acknowledged that Alphabet had grown too quickly and said the company had “hired for a different economic reality” than what it was dealing with now.

    Tech companies have laid off 7,785 workers worldwide so far this year, according to layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job losses in the industry. Nearly 38,000 people had lost their jobs at tech companies by the same time last year.

    On Wednesday, Pichai announced that additional role eliminations would occur and that the most recent round of layoffs had concentrated on reducing layers to streamline execution and boost velocity in certain areas.

     Although many of these changes have already been announced, it is important to note that certain teams will still need to allocate resources throughout the year as needed and that some roles might be affected.

    Forrester principal analyst Christopher Gilchrist said that when technology changes, such as with the advent of generative AI, businesses like Google realise that “the needle has moved” and need to adapt to remain competitive. As time goes on, the workforce will inevitably cluster around the most important tasks.

    Previous layoff affected Google’s advertising team

    On Tuesday, Google announced that it will be cutting “a few hundred” jobs from its worldwide advertising team in an effort to boost efficiency and creativity through the use of artificial intelligence.

    Google claims that it will improve support for small and medium-sized businesses advertising on its platform as a result of the layoffs it has made to its “large customer” sales team.

    Retailers can now benefit from new artificial intelligence tools announced last week by Google’s cloud computing unit, which will allow them to customise online shopping, modernise operations, and transform in-store technology rollouts to have a personalised effect.

    According to Google’s cited research, 80% of US retailers should immediately implement generative AI in retail operations. A press release stated that new Google AI tools made it easy for merchants to incorporate virtual agents into their online stores or mobile applications in order to give customers tailored assistance and suggestions.

    The search engine giant also revealed that its AI is helping with product image analysis and the creation of search-optimised descriptions and terms.

    In response to inflation and increasing interest rates, Google cut about 12,000 jobs last year, or about 6% of its workforce.

    Generative AI has since become a significant investment for the Silicon Valley company.

  • E-commerce giants, Naspers, Prosus to lay off staffs 

    E-commerce giants, Naspers, Prosus to lay off staffs 

    The e-commerce giant Naspers, which has its headquarters in South Africa, and the European subsidiary of its parent company plan to lay off thirty percent of their workers. “We are reacting to a changing macro environment and have been working for some time to enhance our cost structures,” the company Prosus said in a statement that was made public.

    During an interview, Bob van Dijk, the Chief Executive Officer of Prosus, stated that the reduction in staff will take place over the course of the next year and will impact around 15 different sites. Johannesburg and Amsterdam house the majority of the company’s corporate headquarters.

    Read also: Luno to lay off 35% of its workforce 

    The truth is that the macro environment has grown much more challenging and has undergone significant shifts recently. This also indicates that there has been a significant change in the cost of capital because interest rates and risk premiums have both increased,” he went on to say.

    The number of people working at Naspers and Prosus was approximately 30,000 as of March 2022. It is estimated that approximately 9,000 workers could be made redundant as a result of this particular round of layoffs.

    According to Van Dijk, Prosus will also make an effort to reduce expenses at the more than 80 businesses in which it has invested, but these initiatives will take place on different timescales and dimensions.

    Investment With Other Companies 

    Prosus owns or has investments in a number of companies, including OLX, Property24, Udemy, PayU, AutoTrader, and DeliveryHero, while Naspers owns three major entities: Prosus, Takealot, and Media24. Prosus is owned by Naspers.

    This is the most recent round of layoffs that have been disclosed over the course of the past couple of months. Both Google and Microsoft have announced plans to let go of personnel in the range of 10,000 and 12,000, respectively.

    The Naspers share price in Johannesburg finished the day down 1.7%, while the Prosus share price in Amsterdam was down 0.2% at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday.

    About Naspers

    The field of student affairs is represented by its professional organization, NASPER. Together, they are committed to realizing the potential that lies within higher education by adhering to the guiding principles of our institution: integrity, innovation, inclusivity, and inquiry. They make the students the focal point of their work, and they contribute to the industry by providing exceptional professional development, conducting research to address the most pressing issues, advocating for inclusive and equitable communities and practices, and cultivating networks and pipelines to mentor, reenergize, and support.

    US crypto company, Coinbase to lay off 950 employees

    About Prosus 

    Prosus N.V., also known simply as Prosus, is a global investment organization that invests and operates in a variety of different markets and industries that have the potential for long-term growth. It is one of the largest investors in technology on the whole wide planet.

  • Luno to lay off 35% of its workforce 

    Luno to lay off 35% of its workforce 

    Luno, a cryptocurrency exchange company, has made the announcement that it will be laying off 35% of its employees. 

    This adds Luno’s name to the growing list of industry players that are dismissing staff due to the bear market. Other players on this list include Coinbase, Crypto.com, Bybit, Huobi, and Gemini, among others.

    “It is with deep regret that I have to announce that we will be reducing our overall Luno team by 35%,” CEO Marcus Swanepoel wrote in a message to Lunauts on the company’s website. The message was directed toward Lunauts in all of the company’s different regions.

    As explanations for why the cryptocurrency industry has been having so much difficulty as of late, he cited the “global economic slowdown,” the “much bigger fall in the tech sector overall,” the “crypto winter,” and other recent occurrences in the field.

    Luno is said to have approximately 960 employees, according to the company profile on LinkedIn. This will have an impact on the employment of more than 330 people.

    Read also: A Global Slowdown Forces Microsoft And Meta To Begin Layoffs

    More On Luno layoff

    The marketing departments of Luno are going to be significantly impacted as a result of the layoffs. A representative for Luno told CNBC that the layoffs will have “little or no impact on core operations, and compliance departments.” CNBC cited this statement as coming from the spokesperson.

    “2022 was an exceptionally challenging year for the technology sector as a whole, and in particular for the cryptocurrency market.” Coinbase laid off 18% of its workforce in 2018, and further 950 employees were let go earlier this month. The cryptocurrency exchanges Bybit (30%), Huobi (30%), BitMEX (30%), and Crypto.com (30%) are also members of this club.

    The struggling Digital Currency Group is the parent company of the cryptocurrency known as Luno (DCG). The company’s headquarters are located in London, but it also has offices in other European countries, Africa, and in South East Asia. DCG, which is just one of the many cryptocurrency organizations that have been caught up in the domino effect of FTX, is currently dealing with a number of problems.

    Microsoft to invest in AI, cutting over 10,000 jobs

    UST and FTX

    The previous year, they laid off 10% of their workforce and discontinued their wealth-management services. Cameron Winklevoss, one of the company’s co-founders, threatened to sue Barry Silbert, the company’s CEO, when Genesis, one of its subsidiaries, filed for protection from creditors under the bankruptcy code.

    In the event that Barry and DCG do not come to their senses and present creditors with a reasonable offer, “we will be initiating a lawsuit against Barry and DCG in the very near future,” he stated.

    The cryptocurrency market had a reasonably calm start to the year, but it suffered its first significant blow when the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) plummeted quickly and unexpectedly. Despite the fact that the value of the coin was intended to be tied to the value of the US dollar, its value plummeted all the way to zero, wiping out 18 billion dollars worth of market cap from the cryptocurrency industry.

    The spectacular fall of UST had an effect on the market as a whole, including crypto lender Celcius. It was accurately described as a “series of shocks” by Luno’s CEO, and it led to the termination of 150 employees.

    The fall of FTX brought about new challenges for an already troubled cryptocurrency market, which had been unsettled by the earlier fall of UST. UST had been the previous exchange that failed.

  • Business Difficulties Force 54gene to lay off Employees

    Business Difficulties Force 54gene to lay off Employees

    54gene, an African genomics business, has let go of 95 people, or nearly 30% of its 290+ employees. Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong started the three-year-old startup in 2019. Its goal is to fill a gap in the global genomics market where less than 3% of the genetic material used in pharmaceutical research comes from Africa. This is true despite claims that the genetic diversity of Africans and people of African ancestry exceeds that of all other world groups.

    Investors like Y Combinator, Adjuvant Capital, Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF), and others have put a total of $45 million into 54gene, including a $25 million Series B investment last September. A significant portion of the company’s investment goes toward its biobank (which can now hold more than 300,000 samples) and lab testing facilities.

    In 2020, 54gene saw an opportunity to make more money during the pandemic and changed its business model to test for COVID-19, which was in high demand in Africa when the company closed its Series A funding. At one point, 54gene was one of Nigeria’s top providers of COVID testing, making it a significant component of business operations.
    But because of the sharp drop in test results, several people 54gene hired for COVID operations had to be let go.

    The COVID business line affected the lab and sales departments and other business operations that helped the COVID business line. These jobs, as well as those of contract data entry and sample collection officers, were cut because the business line was almost completely shut down. Other operational and technological positions were also impacted.

    54gene Completes First Research Publication on Nigerians

    54gene Completes First Research Publication on Nigerians

    “Like a lot of other businesses dealing with the current market situation, we, too, have had to make changes to our headcount and finances to stay competitive,” said a company spokesperson, adding that the staff cut took place on August 18.
    A spokeswoman for the company said that 54gene would extend health insurance for three more months and give affected workers more money and legal help as required by local laws.

    Rising interest rates and other factors, like the recent long bull market that affected both the public and private markets, make it hard for tech companies to do their jobs. As a result, layoffs are common. Due to recession fears, investors are cautious with their funds, focusing primarily on the growth and late-stage firms. To stay in business, startups have had to cut costs and staff, and those that have been able to raise money have had to adjust their valuations to what they were before the pandemic.

    54gene joins a growing number of African companies that have had to cut their staff because of a bear market, even though they have raised millions of dollars in the last 18 to 24 months. Swvl, Vezeeta, Wave, Sendy, and Marketforce are further businesses.

    Why Is This New Update from 54gene So Shocking?

    This new update from 54gene is quite shocking because, months ago, it was confirmed that they had raised about $25 million to expand their medical research and capacities. Read about how that happened. Africa only makes up less than 3% of the genetic material used worldwide in pharmaceutical research.

    Africans and people of African descent are said to have the most genetic diversity of any group, so the huge difference is very surprising. African genomics startup 54gene has been leading the charge to close this gap in the global genome market since its 2019 launch. The business received $25 million in Series B funding to support its initiatives.

    This funding round came one year after Dr. Abasi Ene-company Obong raised $15 million in a Series A round and two years after finishing a $4.5 million seed round. Since its beginning, 54gene has raised more than $45 million. Since most of the studied genomes worldwide originate from regions other than Africa, the continent remains a significant source of new genetic data for studies on human health and medication discovery.

    Read Also: African Investment Platforms Close Venture Fund at $112 million

    The work of 54gene is pertinent in this context. This research is done and used by the company to make sure that Africans will benefit from future medical and pharmaceutical advances.

    When we asked about the company in 2020, the CEO, Ene-Obong, said that 54gene is looking for willing people to give genetic samples through swabs or blood tests.
    It still functions in much the same way. However, 54gene opened its own genetics sequencing and microarray facility in Lagos last September instead of relying on other healthcare facilities like hospitals or sending the samples abroad for processing. The business collaborated on this with American biotech firm Illumina.

    Innovations in health technology take longer to come about than in fintech and other industries that grow quickly, like e-commerce. In less than two years, 54gene became one of the few startups in its field and even in Africa to get from the seed stage to Series B.
    54gene had a 60,000 sample capacity for its biobank at the time of its most recent boost. Ene-Obong said that the two-year-old business could store up to 300,000 samples in its biobank, which is close to its long-term goal of storing up to 500,000 samples.

    The money was used to boost its skills in clinical trials for precision medicine, target identification and validation, and sequencing. Its spread over the African continent is also very significant. It is so sad that after months, this firm has resolved to lay off some employees, causing a major spike in the unemployment rate in Nigeria. We can only wait to see how things turn out for 54gene.