Snap Inc. is preparing its largest round of layoffs to date. The Snapchat-maker plans to announce the cuts internally within a week, according to people familiar with the matter, who required anonymity to discuss confidential information. (Cheddar)
Snap will lay off about 100 engineers—nearly 10 percent of the team. The company has seen smaller rounds of layoffs in recent months in its marketing, recruiting and content divisions. These layoffs would be the first to hit the company’s engineers. (CNBC)
The company previously laid off a few dozen employees in its recruiting and video-recording Spectacles units. (WSJ)
The cuts come amid struggles during Snap’s first year as a public company: the service has seen a slow growth rate compared to services like Instagram, which has rapidly expanded its user numbers since cloning Snapchat’s Stories feature; at the same time, its hardware efforts seem to be failing, with its work on a drone going nowhere and poor sales of Spectacles. (The Verge)
Snap stock closed at $18.02 per share Wednesday, roughly flat for the day, above the $17 IPO price but 26 percent below its 52-week high. (Variety)