In addition to the 500 layoffs at Twitch, Amazon is also making cuts at Prime Video and MGM Studios, laying off “several hundred” employees, according to a memo obtained by TechCrunch.
The information announced the news of the layoffs.
Mike Hopkins, the division’s senior vice president, announced the cuts in an email Wednesday, noting that the reason for the reduction is “to reduce or stop investment in certain areas, while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that offer greater impact.”
Amazon has begun notifying affected workers in the US and will update most other regions by the end of this week. The company provides them with packages that include severance pay, transitional benefits and external career transition support.
“Our prioritization of initiatives that we know will move the needle, along with our continued investments in programming, marketing and product, position our business for an even stronger future,” Hopkins added.
Nearly a year after acquiring MGM for $8.5 billion in 2022, Amazon launched Amazon MGM Studios Distribution to license Amazon Originals and other titles to streaming services and cable companies in an effort to earn more revenue.
This is the latest round of layoffs at Amazon, adding to a significant list of cuts in 2023 as hundreds of employees in the Alexa department, over 180 roles in Amazon’s gaming division, as well as the thousands affected across its Amazon Stores business, AWS cloud unit and advertising arm, among other areas of the company. In late 2022 and continuing through 2023, Amazon cut 27,000 jobs, or 8% of its corporate workforce, marking the most layoffs in the tech giant’s history.
The cuts also arrive a few weeks before Prime Video display ads on the streaming service. Prime customers — who already pay $14.99 per month for the service — must pay an additional $3 per month if they want to remove the ads.
