Netflix staff were informed that the company will undergo significant layoffs Wednesday, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter, as the streaming giant seeks a reset amid efforts to keep its global business growing.
The company is expected to cut about 6 percent of its workforce, or about 1,000 people, making it the largest staff reduction at the company since 2022.
Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the cuts in a memo to staff Wednesday morning. The company’s product, tech, legal and HR teams are said to have been particularly impacted.
“Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” the co-CEOs wrote in the memo, which was obtained by THR. “Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full- year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high- impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors.”
Ted Sarandos lamented at the Bloomberg Screentime summit on Sept. 30 that “overall, we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster.”
While the company continues to post robust profits, and remains the biggest player in subscription streaming, its viewing time has stagnated in recent months. With advertising one of the company’s growth areas, it needs to keep boosting that viewership engagement.
Netflix has mostly avoided large-scale layoffs in recent years (the last major round of cuts was 2022), though the company has made adjustments on specific teams over time.
The streaming giant is set to report its Q3 earnings next week, and the company is expected to share more information at that time.
You can read the memo from Sarandos and Peters below.
Team – We wanted to share that we are making a number of organizational changes and, as a result, we’ll be letting go of roughly 6% of our colleagues, with the greatest impact to our product, tech, legal, and HR teams.
Decisions like these are never easy, and we don’t take them lightly. Our top priority today is to support those who are leaving Netflix. The process will vary somewhat by country, but leaders will be connecting with impacted employees soon. If you are leaving, please know that we will support you throughout this transition and make sure you have as much clarity and context as possible. We also want to say thank you. What you’ve built, and the care you brought to Netflix, have made a lasting difference and we will always be grateful.
For the rest of the team, we know you have questions, too. Our mission – to entertain the world – is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources. Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full- year forecast. We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high- impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation. Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors.
We know changes like this are tough, but let’s stay focused. This is one of the most dynamic times in the history of entertainment – and it’s a moment perfectly suited to a company like ours that’s built at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Now it’s on us to step up and meet the moment, together, like we always do.
Ted and Greg
More to come.