Sonos lays off 7 percent of its workforce

Sonos is the newest massive tech firm laying off workers. The sensible speaker model has revealed in an SEC submitting that it is chopping 7 percent of its workforce, or about 130 jobs. It’s additionally planning to additional shrink its “real estate footprint” and rethink spending on sure applications, in accordance with the submitting. This will value an estimated $11 million to $14 million, as much as $11 million of which might be linked to severance and advantages.

In a press release to Engadget, Sonos chief Patrick Spence says his firm already deliberate to “protect profitability” if efficiency did not match expectations. The layoffs and spending adjustments are the consequence of “continued headwinds,” the CEO provides.

Sonos has run into monetary bother in current months. It has swung between slim income and losses for a number of quarters, and within the second quarter of 2023 misplaced $30.7 million in comparison with a $8.6 million revenue a yr earlier. Spence pinned the shortfall on “softening” demand and tightening retailer stock, and promised “swift action” to chop prices. It’s not clear how a lot of a job the tough economic system performed within the lowered gross sales, nevertheless it will not have helped.

This is the primary vital spherical of layoffs at Sonos since 2020, when the corporate slashed 12 percent of its headcount because of the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic. They additionally come at a vital second. Sonos simply launched its most necessary audio system in years, the Era 100 and spatial audio-focused Era 300, and continues to be combating Google over patent royalties. It’s additionally dealing with renewed competitors that features the second-generation Apple HomePod. The market is evolving, and Sonos is underneath stress to maintain up.