Zoom announced plans Tuesday to lay off about 1,300 workers, or 15% of its workforce, according to a blog post. on the company website.
Zoom shares were up 7% in afternoon trading.
CEO Eric Yuan wrote in the blog post that as the world continues to adjust to life after the covid pandemicthe company needs to adapt to the «uncertainty of the global economy» as well as «its effect on our customers.»
Zoom boomed during the pandemic as people were forced to work from home and turned to video chat software to keep in touch with colleagues, friends and family.
“We are working tirelessly to improve Zoom for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes,” Yuan said. “We didn’t take as much time as we should to take a hard look at our teams or assess whether we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.”
Yuan said the cuts will affect all organizations on Zoom, and employees who are laid off will be offered up to 16 weeks of pay and health care coverage. The CEO also said that he plans to reduce his own salary for the next fiscal year by 98%, and will also forgo his 2023 corporate bonus.
“As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am responsible for these mistakes and the actions we took today, and I want to show responsibility not just with words but with my own actions,” Yuan wrote in the post.
The company’s layoff announcement marks the latest round of job cuts in the tech industry, as Dell on Monday announced plans to cut 6,650 jobs. In January, Google revealed plans to lay off more than 12,000 workers, Microsoft Revealed plans to cut 10,000 employees and Sales force announced plans for lay off 7,000 workers.