Amazon Begins Layoffs in Devices & Services Organization

Amazon has notified employees of layoffs after deciding to consolidate some teams and programs within its Devices & Services organization.

The firm did not specify the number of employees affected, but said it notified them Tuesday (Nov. 16), according to a blog post on the company’s website.

“As you know, we continue to face an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Dave Limp, senior vice president of Devices & Services at Amazon, said in the post, which was addressed to members of the organization. “In light of this, we’ve been working over the last few months to further prioritize what matters most to our customers and the business.”

The Devices & Services organization includes Alexa, Echo, eero, Kindle, Fire TV and Amazon’s other consumer electronic devices and the affiliated services, according to Limp’s LinkedIn page.

After reviews, the company decided to make the consolidations and staff reductions, Limp said, adding that some of the affected employees may find new roles in the company while the others will receive a separation payment, transitional benefits and support with job placement.

“While I know this news is tough to digest, I do want to emphasize that the Devices & Services organization remains an important area of investment for Amazon, and we will continue to invent on behalf of our customers,” Limp wrote in the post.

The announcement comes two days after a report that Amazon is looking to lay off about 10,000 employees this month in the first and largest such move in the company’s history.

The Monday (Oct. 14) report by The New York Times said the cuts would be focused on the company’s devices division as well as its retail and human resources departments.

Amazon currently has over 1.5 million global employees, meaning a layoff of this scale would represent about a 0.5% headcount reduction.

Four days before that, on Nov. 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was evaluating its Alexa business as the company looks to make cost-cutting measures in the face of the economic downturn.

The devices unit had an operating loss of more than $5 billion in recent years, according to the report.