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Even the biggest connected TV player isn’t immune to the larger economic downtrends.
Roku is eliminating 200 jobs—about 5 percent of its workforce—due to “current economic conditions.”
The company declined to comment on exactly where those cuts were being made, but at the end of last year, Roku had about 3,000 employees across 13 countries.
“Due to the current economic conditions in our industry, we have made the difficult decision to reduce Roku’s headcount expenses by a projected 5%, to slow down our OpEx growth rate,” the company said in a statement. “This will affect approximately 200 employee positions in the U.S. Taking these actions now will allow us to focus our investments on key strategic priorities to drive future growth and enhance our leadership position.”
Roku is the latest media and tech company to join a wave of layoffs that have been sweeping the industry. Paramount recently cut nearly 100 jobs in its ad sales department, and on Wednesday announced a restructuring at CBS Entertainment, resulting in the pending departure of broadcast chief Kelly Kahl.
Last week, Disney announced upcoming layoffs, and during last month’s Comcast earnings call, CFO Mike Cavanagh alluded to the possibility of layoffs. And at Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is expecting restructuring costs to reach up to $1.1 billion, meaning thousands of employees could be let go.
In an SEC filing, Roku said the job cuts will result in severance charges between $28 million and $31 million, primarily in this quarter, and will be mostly completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
Earlier this month, Roku reached 65.4 million active accounts, but warned of macroeconomic challenges within the TV ad market.
“They’re pressuring both consumers and businesses, including the TV ad market, but our opportunity remains as strong as ever,” CFO Steve Louden said during the company’s third quarter earnings report. Louden will be departing Roku in 2023, unrelated to today’s layoffs.
The company just hired former Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier as its new president of media, overseeing content as well as advertising sales and its ad platform business.
Advertising has been hit particularly hard in the latest wave of industry layoffs.
