- Amazon.com Inc AMZN froze staffing levels in its profitable advertising business, reflecting its more drastic measures to align expenses with slowing sales.
- Amazon disclosed the headcount freeze internally on November 1, Bloomberg reported.
- Amazon will continue filling vacancies in its advertising business without creating new positions.
- The decision to keep the advertising unit workforce at its current level reflects its plans to squeeze more profit out of the fast-growing business in the busy holiday quarter.
- Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a media call that Amazon would continue investing in its advertising division and its cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services while looking for other places to cut costs.
- Amazon’s advertising business generated $9.55 billion in the quarter ended September 30, an increase of 25% from the same period a year earlier.
- Amazon shares had dropped 13% since October 27, when the company projected the slowest revenue growth ever for its holiday quarter.
- Amazon in October imposed a hiring freeze on corporate roles in its retail business and has been cutting and shutting down several experimental and smaller programs to reduce costs.
- Amazon halted global hiring for all corporate roles, including technology positions, in its stores business.
- Amazon discontinued its pandemic-era kids’ video calling device amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior.
- Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 0.18% at $96.96 in the premarket on the last check Wednesday.
- Photo by Tony Webster via Flickr
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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