Streaming company Roku lays off another 200 employees

San Francisco, March 31 (IANS) Streaming company Roku is laying off additional 200 employees, after sacking a similar number of workers last November.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed the latest layoff move.

“On March 29, Roku approved a restructuring plan to lower the company’s year-over-year operating expense growth and prioritise projects that the company believes will have a higher return on investment,” it said in the filing.

The move “is expected to impact approximately 200 employees, approximately 6 per cent of the company’s workforce, and result in the exit and sublease, or cease use, of certain office facilities that the company does not currently occupy”, it added.

Roku had around 3,600 employees as of the end of 2022.

In November 2022, the streaming company had announced it was laying off 200 US employees, or roughly 7 per cent of its workforce.

As stated in its shareholder letter, the employees had grown significantly since 2021 because Roku’s leadership “believed that the economy was emerging out of pandemic-related disruptions”.

Therefore, the suggested solution was a slowdown in hiring rather than layoffs.

“In Q2, the company said that it was selling fewer streaming boxes, which impacts its revenue in more ways than one,” the earnings report mentioned.

–IANS

na/sha