According to a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider, Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook company, is laying off 5% of its staff.
The memo, from Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, commended the staff for a strong 2023 and assured them that the business was in good shape. However, due to the “increasingly challenging landscape,” the company is making cuts. This trend is widespread in the tech industry, with companies in all sectors facing ongoing layoffs since 2022.
Audible did not respond to requests for comment.
Amazon has been aggressively reducing its workforce over the past year. In 2023, the company laid off approximately 27,000 employees across various departments, including AWS, Twitch, and advertising. Recently, Twitch laid off an additional 500 employees, and Amazon’s MGM Studios and Prime Video let go of “several hundred” employees. This is a challenging time for Amazon’s entertainment products.
Aside from Prime Video, all these entities at Amazon – Twitch, MGM Studios, and Audible – were acquired by the company. Amazon acquired MGM for $8.5 billion in 2022, bringing over 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows to the Prime Video streaming service. Amazon bought Twitch, a gaming-focused livestream platform, for about $1 billion in 2014. Audible has been part of Amazon since 2008 when it was acquired for $300 million.
Although Twitch is highly popular, the operational costs of running a large livestreaming service have kept the company unprofitable. As for MGM and Prime Video, senior vice president Mike Hopkins stated that the division is cutting or discontinuing investments in certain areas while increasing focus on content and product initiatives with the most impact.
