Zoom CEO says he will take 98% pay cut as he announces layoffs, 1,300 to come

Washington:

The company behind video conferencing platform Zoom – which has become a household name during the pandemic – announced on Tuesday that it was laying off around 15% of its staff.

Zoom Video Communications chief executive Eric Yuan is also taking a 98% pay cut this year and forgoing his executive bonus, he said in a blog post about the job cuts.

He added that members of his management team were taking a 20% pay cut and also forgoing bonuses this year.

As people and businesses continue to rely on Zoom “as the world transitions to post-pandemic life,” the Silicon Valley-based company is seeing its customers cut spending, Yuan said in the post.

Zoom made the “difficult but necessary” decision to lay off about 1,300 people, or about 15% of its staff, according to Yuan.

“Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I’m proud of how we pulled together as a company to keep people connected” , Yuan said.

Zoom tripled its ranks of employees during the pandemic as people used the platform for remote work, court hearings, social events and more as Covid-19 threatened to prevent them from meeting in nobody, according to Yuan.

“We worked tirelessly, but we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess whether we were growing in a sustainable way, towards the highest priorities. “, did he declare.

“We see people and businesses continuing to rely on Zoom,” Yuan said.

“But the uncertainty of the global economy and its effects on our customers means we need to take a critical look at ourselves to reset ourselves so that we can weather the economic environment, meet our customers’ needs and realize the vision. term of Zoom.”

Zoom will continue to invest in strategic areas, the chief executive noted.

Zoom has joined a growing list of US tech companies that are cutting jobs as years of high spending have given way to parsimony due to tough economic conditions around the world.

The American computer company Dell announced on Monday that it would lay off around 5% of its global workforce, or around 6,650 employees.

The cuts follow similar steps by tech giants Microsoft, Facebook owner Meta, Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon and Twitter as the industry braces for the economic downturn.

They also come after a major hiring spree at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when businesses rushed to meet demand as people went online for work, school and play.

According to the specialized site Layoffs.fyi, just over 95,000 tech employees have lost their jobs since the beginning of January worldwide.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)