Roku is laying off another 6% of its workforce

With today's announcement, Roku is laying off 6% of its workforce, which is about 200 employees. The company is the latest tech company to announce a second round of layoffs. The company announced the cuts in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, explaining that the decision is part of a larger plan to reduce the company's operating expenses year-over-year and prioritize projects that will provide a higher return on investment. It was reported back in November that the company had laid off 200 U.S. employees due to the economic conditions in the industry at the time.

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Roku announced in the new filing that it would exit and sublet certain office space that it no longer occupies as part of the restructuring.

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Roku's plan is expected to cost it about $30 to $35 million in non-recurring charges related to matters such as severance costs, notice pay, employee benefit contributions, and other related costs associated with the cessation of use of its office facilities. There are a number of charges that Roku expects to incur over the course of this year, with the majority of them falling within the first quarter. The company expects the headcount reductions, as well as the cash payments, to be "substantially complete" by the end of the second quarter of this year, as stated in the filing.

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As Roku stated in its previous round of layoffs, the current economic conditions necessitated layoffs as the company had to reduce the growth in its operating expenses by slashing its workforce to combat rising costs. This news had come shortly after Roku released its third quarter results, where the company had warned investors that the future quarter would be less than satisfactory.

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With record revenue of $867.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2022, Roku outperformed its own revenue expectations with a total net revenue of $867.1 million for its most recent earnings report announced in February. As predicted, revenue for the company was expected to reach approximately $800 million, but analysts predicted that revenues would fall by 7% year-over-year to $804.19 million, a decline of 7%. As part of the announcement, the company announced that it will have 70 million active accounts worldwide in 2022, up from 65.4 million in Q3 of 2018. In spite of this, Roku's operating losses had widened to $249.9 million during the second quarter, up from a loss of $147 million recorded in the first quarter.

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Neither the company nor the areas that will be affected by these latest rounds of cuts were disclosed by them. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the situation, but we will keep you updated as we learn more information.

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It is not the only tech company to dole out its headcount reductions over a period of many months as Roku has done over the past few years. This month, Amazon has done the same, along with Meta and others, as well.