from Hacker News

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek surprised by how much 1,500 layoffs' impacted operations

by monkin on 4/23/24, 3:43 PM with 27 comments

• by srajabi on 4/23/24, 4:08 PM

  https://archive.is/L0BdY

  Summary:

  * Spotify’s Layoff Impact: CEO Daniel Ek was surprised by the significant operational challenges following the layoff of 1,500 employees.

  * Financial Performance: Despite achieving record profits of €168 million and revenue growth, Spotify missed its targets for profitability and user growth.

  * Investor Reaction: Shares increased by over 8% after the earnings report, reflecting investor confidence.

  * Long-Term Strategy: Despite short-term issues, Spotify believes the layoffs were necessary for long-term profitability.

• by locopati on 4/23/24, 4:23 PM

  How does a CEO not understand the employment needs of his company? Oh, right, he's playing stock price games with the investors and doesn't give a shit about his employees.

• by rsynnott on 4/24/24, 2:22 PM

  Wait, so if you fire the people who do the work, the work doesn't get done?! Well I never. Who'd have thought it?

  Sometimes I'm just baffled, I really am.

• by leosanchez on 4/23/24, 4:25 PM

  I was curious what jobs were impacted. Looks like plenty of SWE were fired:

  From layoffs.fyi: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KPL87R3veJ6HaQeHdkG1...

• by gjvc on 4/23/24, 3:59 PM

  "Although there’s no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipated."

  Absolute double-speak. Translation "Although it was clearly a dumb thing to do we are now fucked and full of bitter regret and embarrassment. Also, check out my shades."

• by exabrial on 4/23/24, 4:04 PM

  I'm blown away that company _needs_ more than 1,500 employees in the first place...