Amazon to Slash Workforce, Terminating Jobs at MGM, Prime Video, Twitch

Amazon Inc. is reducing its workforce, and these job cuts will affect employees across its subsidiaries, such as Prime Video, Amazon MGM Studios, and Twitch. The company said on Wednesday, Jan. 10, that staff from two business units, which are its streaming and film & TV, are set to be laid off.

According to CNN Business, Amazon will terminate several hundred employees to cut costs. The company has been exerting efforts to reduce its operation expenses, and unfortunately, job cuts are part of the ongoing process.

Management Informed Employees of the Job Cuts

The company relayed the news to its staff through an internal memo that was also shared with CNN. The senior vice president of Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, Mike Hopkins, said that the management had already reached out to the affected employees on Wednesday.

In his memo to the employees, he wrote, “We have identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact.”

Amazon acquired MGM in 2022 for $8.5 billion, and it was a strategic deal to help bolster the company’s position in the entertainment industry. The acquisition also expanded Amazon Prime Video’s video content and library.

Support for the Affected Workers

Amazon will offer support to employees who these layoffs will displace. Hopkins said they will provide packages that include a separation payment, job placement support, and applicable transitional benefits.

BBC News reported that in 2023, Amazon laid off over 27,000 staff, and this year, the first job cuts will affect “several hundred” people. In Twitch alone, 500 workers were confirmed to leave. The exact total number of terminated employees was not mentioned.

“Over the last year, we have been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient,” Dan Clancy, Twitch’s CEO said. “Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”

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