Amazon Cutting Hundreds of Jobs in Prime Video and Studios

Amazon is laying off hundreds of employees across its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.

The cuts follow the organization’s year-long review of every aspect of its business, Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in a note that was sent to employees on Wednesday (Jan. 10) and provided to PYMNTS by Amazon.

“As a result, we’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact,” Hopkins said in the note.

The affected employees in the Americas will be notified Wednesday and those in most other regions will be reached by the end of the week, according to the note.

“Our prioritization of initiatives that we know will move the needle, along with our continued investments in programming, marketing and product, positions our business for an even stronger future,” Hopkins said in the note.

These cuts follow a series of rolling layoffs by Amazon that have resulted in over 27,000 job cuts, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The company’s decision to downsize was driven by the need to reduce costs after a period of rapid expansion during the pandemic, the report said.

Additionally, Amazon has terminated multiple projects initiated during former CEO Jeff Bezos’ tenure, per the report.

Recently, the company let go of hundreds of employees in the division responsible for its voice-activated assistant, Alexa, as well as in its music division, according to the report.

On Tuesday (Jan. 9), Bloomberg reported that Amazon’s livestreaming service, Twitch, was preparing to cut about 35% of its staff, amounting to approximately 500 workers. This decision comes amidst concerns over losses at Twitch and the departure of several top executives within a short span of time, the report said.

The move aligns with a broader trend in the video streaming industry, as companies like Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery are also retrenching, per the report. Another dominant player in the streaming market, Netflix, has not increased its content budget in the past two years.