from Hacker News

Roku to cut 200 jobs in second round of layoffs

by mska on 3/30/23, 11:57 AM with 53 comments

  • by merrywhether on 3/30/23, 2:56 PM

    What they really need to do is layoff BrightScript. They are certainly big in the streaming device space, but not enough to justify having a proprietary language. The rest of the industry is coalescing around portable apps based on web tech while Roku is derided and only begrudgingly supported due to their current market share. But Roku’s market share has been relatively flat while FireTV has grown to equal them, and Roku should be terrified of the cliff BrightScript puts them on. Every company would love to kill their oddball BrightScript app as soon as possible and that’s a dangerous position for a company without a defensible moat. See their lost battle with YouTube to see how much clout they actually have.
  • by mathteacher1729 on 3/30/23, 4:28 PM

    "Roku soars past revenue expectations as it bets on streaming devices to boost growth" - Feb 2023[1]

    [1] https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/15/roku-q4-2023-earnings/

  • by damsta on 3/30/23, 1:24 PM

    And I thought March would be a bit more kinder to IT sector than February and we still have Friday left for a few more layoffs.
  • by Thaxll on 3/30/23, 1:12 PM

    6% is the new 10%, in a few years we're going to get layoffs with no layoffs.
  • by bastardoperator on 3/30/23, 3:30 PM

    So forcing huge ads on everyone isn't paying the bills. Take note Google.
  • by 908B64B197 on 3/30/23, 3:20 PM

    I wonder if these are tech (engineers) or "Tech adjacent" positions.

    This year's layoffs mostly affected the later.

  • by pipeline_peak on 3/30/23, 9:37 PM

    Makes sense, how long can a company survive making solely stream boxes past 2008…

    I can’t find a tv that doesn’t have smart capabilities. Not a lot of them seem to be using Roku under the hood.

  • by AH4oFVbPT4f8 on 3/30/23, 6:31 PM

    They have 2 billion in cash, this is absurd.

    200 employees x $250k = $50,000,000

    Using only cash on hand they could employ these people for another 40 years.

    Shame on you Roku.

  • by boringuser2 on 3/30/23, 4:29 PM

    It is interesting to me that all of these labor cuts are from companies vastly outperforming the stock market.
  • by moneywoes on 3/30/23, 4:12 PM

    Wonder if SVB impacted this
  • by Olumde on 3/31/23, 1:19 AM

    I interviewed with Roku a few weeks ago. Mercifully, I failed.
  • by philipov on 3/30/23, 1:39 PM

    it's a streaming pile of company, alright.
  • by pseudosavant on 3/30/23, 4:30 PM

    That sucks for all of these people. I can only hope all of them were related to the parts of the business intent on spamming their home screen. Die Harter Two has no business being the second most prominent thing when I turn on my TV.