As expected, Netflix laid off another 316 employees Thursday, around 3% of its global workforce, as the streaming company attempts to stop the bleeding after abrupt halts in customer and revenue growth.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, which intercepted an internal staff memo, 216 of the workers were based in the U.S., with the rest in Europe and the Middle East (53), Asia-Pacific (30) and Latin America (17).
“Both Ted and I regret not seeing our slowing revenue growth earlier so we could have ensured a more gradual readjustment of the business,” read a note sent to staff on Thursday from Netflix Co-CEO's Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos.
The layoffs followed an initial round of 25 staffers let go in April (who worked for Netflix's advertorial platform Tudum), and a round of about 150 mostly U.S.-based marketing staffers in May.
Bloomberg said an additional 150 contract workers were let go at some point, as well.
According to Deadline, the latest cuts included executives at the director level involved with original series production. Among them were Sebastian Gibbs and Penelope Essoyan in drama series; Negin Salmasi in spectacle and event TV; and Naketha Mattocks, Brad Butler, Alison Haskovec and Caroline Mak in the family films unit.
“We know these two rounds of layoffs have been very hard for everyone — creating a lot of anxiety and uncertainty," the staff memo added. "We plan to return to a more normal course of business going forward. And as we cut back in some areas, we also continue to invest significant amounts in our content and people: over the next 18 months, our employee base is planned to grow by ~1.5K to ~11.5K."
On the dark afternoon of Tuesday, April 19, Netflix reported its first global customer loss ever for the first quarter, as well as revenue growth that dipped below 10% after a run of 30%-plus expansion. Netflix said that it expects to lose another 2 million customers in Q2.
However, company has pledged not to trim a content budget that will match last year's $17 billion. ■
