Business Big Tech Layoffs Megathread - Techbros... we got too cocky...

Since my previous thread kinda-sorta turned into a soft megathread, and the tech layoffs will continue until morale improves, I think it's better to group them all together.

For those who want a QRD:


Just this week we've had these going on:

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But it's not just Big Tech, the vidya industry is also cleaning house bigly:

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All in all, rough seas ahead for the techbros.
 
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moocow said:
Clearly she's a master negotiator. Imagine going from "hey we could probably still trim the belt a little bit if we really have to" all the way to "fuck you and the horse you rode in on cunt, you're fired and everyone in your division is fired" in just one conversation.

I couldn't get fired that quick even if I tried. :story:
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I suspect she went with a wishy washy "think of the engineers and all their hard work/families/ blah blah blah" instead if responding with hard data on why the cuts would not work.

Musk does not care about feeling only results.
 
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I’m wondering how insolvent Tesla is. Musk wants a big paycheck which is somewhat unusual—doesn’t he usually fund his lifestyle through revolving debt? And, given high interest rates, simultaneous inflation, and a looming crash in broader car markets (let alone the EV market), it makes zero sense to pull out $46B… unless he thinks there’s gonna be $0B available next year.

Also, Tesla doubled their number of employees in the years post-pandemic. That degree of expansion alone was lunacy. So, I’m thinking he fired everyone in a fit of pique, but also he literally needs to fire 90% of his work force and rebuild. This has the perk of being able to hire people back at much, much lower salaries.

What do you guys think?
 
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moocow said:
Clearly she's a master negotiator. Imagine going from "hey we could probably still trim the belt a little bit if we really have to" all the way to "fuck you and the horse you rode in on cunt, you're fired and everyone in your division is fired" in just one conversation.

I couldn't get fired that quick even if I tried. :story:
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Back me up! said:
I suspect she went with a wishy washy "think of the engineers and all their hard work/families/ blah blah blah" instead if responding with hard data on why the cuts would not work.

Musk does not care about feeling only results.
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Nah, I know female executives, and they're used to being able to hardline it and not get pushback. She probably said "What you're asking for is impossible for me to achieve", thinking that she could just shut it down entirely. This works great against cowardly executives who worry they'll get reamed by the board for harassing or losing a high level female leader.

Against someone who wants results and not bullshit, the obvious answer is "Then I'll find someone who can do it".
 
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Kuritan Deplorable said:
Nah, I know female executives, and they're used to being able to hardline it and not get pushback. She probably said "What you're asking for is impossible for me to achieve", thinking that she could just shut it down entirely. This works great against cowardly executives who worry they'll get reamed by the board for harassing or losing a high level female leader.

Against someone who wants results and not bullshit, the obvious answer is "Then I'll find someone who can do it".
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But "I'll find someone who can do it" typically involves replacing management and/or doing the workforce reductions yourself. Responding by glassing the entire division suggests there might be something going on here - either Musk is unravelling (the twitter saga seems to point in this direction) or there was a strategic reason for wanting to bomb that sector of the business that isn't obvious from the outside.

From the outside, there was a glut of "I like my EV but charging is bullshit - unless you have a Tesla" articles maybe 2 years ago, so my impression of the Supercharger is that it's one of the jewels in Tesla's crown. Maybe it's a mature technology and there's no ROI in continuing to do much of anything new with it, maybe the open sourcing of the tech means that they can rely on competitors to handle expanding EV charging networks.
The Reuters article doesn't really give us a sense of how large of a layoff Musk was asking for - if he wanted 95% of it gone and she balked, then going to 100% isn't that extreme since presumably the management team that wasn't on board was part of the remaining chunk. But if he was asking for a 60% reduction and he went to 100% that would be a much bigger shift.

In any case - Tesla seems a bit chaotic right now. If I were in the market for a new car Tesla would have been my top choice 6 months ago (they drive pretty nice). Now I'd probably put off any purchases for another 6 months to see what the company looks like.
 
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moocow said:
Clearly she's a master negotiator. Imagine going from "hey we could probably still trim the belt a little bit if we really have to" all the way to "fuck you and the horse you rode in on cunt, you're fired and everyone in your division is fired" in just one conversation.

I couldn't get fired that quick even if I tried. :story:
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Not only you but also all the people who work for you too. Oops!
 
yes, the game was a live service game for dauntless.
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Phoenix Labs appears to be executing another round of layoffs, eliminating what may be over 100 employees. Former employees on LinkedIn are reporting the loss of their jobs and stating that all projects in development have been cancelled.

Word of the layoffs also comes from Polygon senior reporter Nicole Carpenter, who says some laid-off developers mentioned they were laid off during a mass Zoom call.

On LinkedIn, former principal engineer Kris Morness said the layoffs were ordered Phoenix Labs owner Forte. The blockchain platform apparently acquired Phoenix Labs "over a year ago" in an unpublicized transaction. He corroborated a post from former UX lead Noah Watkins that said the studio's next game was just a few weeks away from being announced.

Watkins said that game was "weeks away" from launching in Early Access. He also said that the studio has "shut down," though it is unclear if that refers to total closure or some other organizational shift.

Why is Phoenix Labs laying off employees?
Phoenix Labs spent 2023 wrestling with major organizational changes, culminating in a series of layoffs in May and December. The layoffs in May followed the company breaking away from parent company Garena, developers of Garena Free Fire.

Lining up that timeline with Morness' claim about Forte, it seems likely that the blockchain platform was a key part of the shift in ownership. It's unknown why its involvement wasn't publicized.

In September, CEO Jesse Houston and COO Jeanne-Marie Owens stepped down from their roles for "personal reasons." At the time, Houston stated that "the future has never looked brighter" for Phoenix Labs. He praised the "amazing pipeline" of games in development.

It now seems that pipeline has been closed off.

Game Developer has reached out to Phoenix Labs for comment and will update this story when a response is issued.
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Today, leadership at the storied company that traces it origins to the late Steve Jobs and was bought by Disney in 2006 will notify employees of the reductions, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. It is the biggest restructuring in Pixar’s history, although top leadership isn’t impacted.

Approximately 14 percent of Pixar’s workforce, or around 175 employees, will be let go. Before the reductions, approximately 1,300 people worked at the animation studio.
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Hello everyone.

I have spoken to you many times over the last year about our pending move away from series production for Disney+, the return to our focus on feature films, and the reduction in our team that would accompany that. That day is here, and while it is not coming as a surprise to anyone, it is one of the hardest changes we’ve had to make, as it means we will be parting with a number of talented and dedicated colleagues and friends.

Today, leaders will begin the process of notifying employees whose positions are being impacted. Calendar invites to speak with a leader have already gone out to those individuals, and we anticipate we will have connected with everyone impacted by the end of the day.

I want to assure you that will be providing extensive support as our colleagues start to transition out of the studio. We are committed to ensuring that their departure is handled with the utmost respect and care at every stage. This is important to me, and I understand how important this is to all of us in the Pixar community. I will host a brief Studio Meeting via Zoom this afternoon at 5:00 to talk more about today’s announcement.

Despite the challenges in our industry over the past few years, you have all consistently shown up to contribute, collaborate, innovate, lead, and do great work at this studio. I give you my deepest thanks, and for those who will be leaving us, I am hopeful that our paths will cross again, both professionally and personally.

Jim
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IGN Entertainment has acquired the Gamer Network family of digital brands for an undisclosed sum.

As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.

Gamer Network’s publications are GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer (including six local language editions), Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 and Dicebreaker. The business also holds shares in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry and Hookshot (which operates Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox and Time Extension).

IGN Entertainment is the division of Ziff Davis that includes IGN, MapGenie, HowLongToBeat, and Humble Bundle. It has acquired the websites from PAX and New York Comic-Con organiser ReedPop, which initially bought the Gamer Network business in 2018.

Not included in the sale are UK-based events EGX or MCM, or the digital brand Popverse, which remain with ReedPop.
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Snekposter said:
Axing Arkane should have been done years ago, but the guys who made Ghostwire and Evil Within? I have no idea what they did to deserve the chop.
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They didn't make money. The Evil within 1 and 2 were sales flops sadly.

Ghost wire was middle in sales as well.

gobbles said:
I’m wondering how insolvent Tesla is. Musk wants a big paycheck which is somewhat unusual—doesn’t he usually fund his lifestyle through revolving debt? And, given high interest rates, simultaneous inflation, and a looming crash in broader car markets (let alone the EV market), it makes zero sense to pull out $46B… unless he thinks there’s gonna be $0B available next year.

Also, Tesla doubled their number of employees in the years post-pandemic. That degree of expansion alone was lunacy. So, I’m thinking he fired everyone in a fit of pique, but also he literally needs to fire 90% of his work force and rebuild. This has the perk of being able to hire people back at much, much lower salaries.

What do you guys think?
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Musk wants tens KF billions for reasons. He's stopped giving a shit about Tesla ever since he bought Twitter.

lichen said:
In any case - Tesla seems a bit chaotic right now. If I were in the market for a new car Tesla would have been my top choice 6 months ago (they drive pretty nice). Now I'd probably put off any purchases for another 6 months to see what the company looks like
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They are mediocre cars. Terrible man machine interface, meh interior quality, meh exterior quality.
 
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NoReturn said:
What on earth does "undermine charging-business fundamentals" mean?
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Basically cutting to the point where a business unit can’t effectively function. Of course this is up for interpretation and in this case, there was a disagreement.
 
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Bog-standard Poster said:
I still can't believe a country can just say to another country "your government spyware app is taking money and users away from our government spyware app. Sell it to us, or we're banning it", and nobody cares.
I hope byte-dance shut down tiktok, migrate it to rikrok and sack every non-chink worker.
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The legislation in part cites ByteDance by name. They can't use this trick to re-enter the US market.
 
Bog-standard Poster said:
I still can't believe a country can just say to another country "your government spyware app is taking money and users away from our government spyware app. Sell it to us, or we're banning it", and nobody cares.
I hope byte-dance shut down tiktok, migrate it to rikrok and sack every non-chink worker.
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It seems likely that the law won't survive constitutional scrutiny, if TikTok/ByteDance wants to take their lawsuit that far.
 
Alter Ego said:
The legislation in part cites ByteDance by name. They can't use this trick to re-enter the US market.
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Can bytedance open up a new company in America (owned by the chinks) called dytebance and sell tiktok to them?
davids877 said:
It seems likely that the law won't survive constitutional scrutiny, if TikTok/ByteDance wants to take their lawsuit that far.
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They'll probably just sell it to Microsoft for infinity billion dollars.
 
Bog-standard Poster said:
Can bytedance open up a new company in America (owned by the chinks) called dytebance and sell tiktok to them?

They'll probably just sell it to Microsoft for infinity billion dollars.
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No, they explicitly can't do that either. You can see the language of the law for yourself here:
Alter Ego said:
Indeed a pain in the ass to find, but the bill (now law) in question here is H.R. 8038 of the 118th Congress 2D Session, "21st Century Peace through Strength Act". Since this is an omnibus bill (because we can't have nice things like single-issue bills), the relevent section here is Division D, "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act":
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So this calls out ByteDance and TikTok by name, but then gives allowance to extend reach to further companies that are "controlled by a foreign adversary". To understand what "foreign adversaries" are, though, the text directs to section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 20 Code:
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So it appears to me that the scope of this is explicitly limited to the obvious entities North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Thus the "bad sites" like Twitter, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms are safe from this, for those who are so worried.
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I've also heard what I think is a pretty good argument that China is more likely to kill TikTok than sell it because they don't want the biases they've been exerting with their algorithm exposed to their Western adversaries.
 
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Alter Ego said:
I've also heard what I think is a pretty good argument that China is more likely to kill TikTok than sell it because they don't want the biases they've been exerting with their algorithm exposed to their Western adversaries.
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Lots of people have talked about the differences between what Chinese TikTok pushes (useful shit) vs. what Western TikTok pushes (total degeneracy). I sincerely doubt there's anything so complex as an algorithm at work.
 
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