Shares of Snapchat’s parent company fell in premarket trading on Wednesday after a report that it is planning a round of significant layoffs.
According to the Verge, the cuts will affect some 20% of Snap Inc., or 6,400 employees. Meanwhile, Snap’s chief business officer, Jeremi Gorman, and its vice president of sales, Peter Naylor, are both leaving the company for Netflix, where they will head up the streaming giant’s new advertising ambitions, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
We’ve reached out to Snap for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Snap’s stock price was down almost 8% in premarket trading to $9.25. If it opens at that price, it would be lower than the company’s 52-week low of $9.34. Shares of Snap have fallen almost 80% since the beginning of this year.
Tech giants in general have seen their stocks battered over the past nine months after a pandemic-driven rally that carried them through most of 2021. However, after another sell-off this week, some tech firms are performing a bit better this morning. Facebook parent Meta is up 2.6% in premarket trading, while Google parent Alphabet is up almost 1%. Netflix and Apple are up 1.94% and 0.38%, respectively.
A number of big-name tech companies have announced hiring freezes or layoffs since the start of the year, including Netflix, Coinbase, Lyft, Robinhood, Soundcloud, and Peloton, among others.
