Tag: Travel

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 10/22/20

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Below is a recap of tech layoff news from recent weeks. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

🏢 Quibi ∙ 🌎 Los Angeles ∙ 👩 100% of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Quibi, the short-form video streaming service started by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, is shutting down. Despite raising $1 billion in funding and launching with much fanfare six months ago, the service struggled to gain traction, signing up only 500,000 subscribers compared to its initial target of 7 million.

🏢 Chef ∙ 🌎 Seattle ∙ 🔗Source

  • An unspecified number of employees were laid off at DevOps startup Chef following its $220 million acquisition by Progress. Those affected include a portion of Chef’s engineering team in Seattle and other locations.

🏢 Getyourguide ∙ 🌎 Berlin ∙ 👩 90 employees (17%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Berlin-based tourism startup Getyourguide laid off 90 employees due to the disruption of travel resulting from the global pandemic. The company offers a booking platform for sightseeing tours and other tourism activities.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 9/3/20

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Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

🏢 Big Fish Games ∙ 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩 250 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Big Fish Games, a developer of mobile and social casino games, laid off 250 employees despite other gaming companies reporting a surge in sales during the pandemic. Some point to a recent $155 million legal settlement, the result of allegations that the company’s games constituted illegal gambling in Washington, as a reason for the layoff.  For its part, Big Fish Games explained its decision using phrases like “refactoring operations” and “reinforce the company’s positioning for growth.”

🏢 GoBear ∙ 🌎 Singapore ∙ 👩 22 employees (11%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • GoBear, an online financial services “supermarket,” laid off 11% of its employees in offices across the globe. The company now plans to focus on its growth areas of digital lending and insurance brokerage services.  [As an aside, GoBear feels like an ominous name choice for a financial services startup…maybe “bear market” means something different in Southeast Asia?]

🏢 MakeMyTrip ∙ 🌎 New Delhi ∙ 👩 350 employees (10%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • MakeMyTrip, India’s largest online travel booking company, saw revenue slashed to zero during the pandemic. Its founder joked that the company’s Q2 earnings call should’ve been called a “lack of earnings call.” As a result, the company laid off 350 employees, or 10% of its staff, in June. 

🏢 Awok ∙ 🌎 Dubai ∙ 👩 100% of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Dubai-based e-commerce startup Awok shut down a year after raising a $30 million Series A. Employees have reported receiving no pay since January and blame company leadership for the shutdown; Awok’s website cites the pandemic as the reason for closing shop.

🏢 kununu ∙ 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Kununu, a platform that lets employees rate their employer, discontinued its U.S. operations and shut down its Boston office. Headquartered in Vienna, the company was bought by Linkedin competitor XING for $12.3 million in 2013.

Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for contributing to this post.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 8/27/20

Roundup, , , , ,

Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

🏢 Salesforce ∙ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 ~1,000 employees (2%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Salesforce, the CRM and enterprise cloud software giant, laid off about 1,000 employees (2%) less than a day after reporting blowout earnings. In March, Salesforce’s CEO pledged to its workforce “Ohana” that the company would not have any “significant” layoffs for 90 days. Recent layoffs affected sales and customer support, despite a 29% rise in revenue and 26% increase in share price. Affected workers were given 60 days to find another role in the firm.

🏢 Hipcamp ∙ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 ~60% of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Hipcamp, an Airbnb for camping stays, laid off around 60% of its employees back in April, TechCrunch reported today. More recently though, Hipcamp’s business has rebounded now that stay-at-home orders have eased and travelers prefer the safety of the outdoors. Hipcamp has rehired some of its laid-off employees and is looking to expand its team further.

🏢 Docly ∙ 🌎 London ∙ 👩 8 employees (80%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Telemedicine startup Docly, a spinoff of Swedish digital health provider Mik Doctor, stopped operating in the UK. 8 employees were laid off as a direct result of restructuring, as Docly will refocus on becoming a technology supplier for companies like Mik Doctor in the future.

🏢 Spaces ∙ 🌎 Los Angeles ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Spaces, a VR entertainment startup, was recently acquired by Apple, who has been buying VR teams to develop its own VR headset. When the news broke, Spaces’ CEO noted that the company had to lay off an undisclosed number of employees at the beginning of the pandemic and take out a PPP loan to “keep the lights on.”

🏢 Streamsets ∙ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Streamsets, a data integration startup with $76 million of funding, laid off an unknown number of employees in order to survive the first wave of the pandemic. The layoffs came days after the company won a best workplaces award. The company cut R&D and some recent hires, saying that it needed to give up on “inefficient growth.”

🏢 Mapify ∙ 🌎 Berlin ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Mapify, an app for planning travel experiences, laid off “several team members,” citing the pandemic’s continued disruption on travel. The startup most recently raised a $1 million seed round in 2018.

Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for contributing to this post.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner launches talent directory after laying off 300 employees

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🌎 Edinburgh ∙ 👩 300 employees (20%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Skyscanner, a flight comparison website based in Scotland, laid off 300 employees (20%) globally last month. The company recently launched an official talent directory featuring a couple dozen of its former employees (see link 👇).

In conjunction with its layoff, Skyscanner plans to close or scale back many of its global offices outside the U.K. The company’s revenues “have been hit significantly,” and it expects a full recovery to be “several quarters or possibly years away” due to the pandemic’s disruption on travel.

Skyscanner is owned by Ctrip, the largest online travel agency in China, which acquired the startup in 2016 for $1.75 billion.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Klook

Asian travel startup Klook releases talent directory

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🌎 Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Mumbai ∙ 👩 At least 83 employees ∙ 🖥 Customer Experience, Business Development

Klook, a travel activities booking platform backed by SoftBank, set up a talent directory to support recently-departed employees (see link 👇). In April, the company laid off or furloughed more than 300 employees. That spring Klook saw its revenue drop by as much as 90% as global travel abruptly halted.

It’s not clear whether the Klook talent directory is meant to cover the April layoffs, or if there’s been a new round since then. The website, launched 2 weeks ago, says that the company “recently had to part with great people.”

The Klook layoff list features 83 ex-employees, most of whom were in its Customer Experience or Business Development departments.

The company has witnessed a rebound recently as it caters to the rising demand in staycations.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 8/6/20

Roundup, ,

Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

🏢 Booking.com ∙ 🌎 Amsterdam ∙ 👩 4,375 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Hotel reservations website Booking.com will be laying off 25% of its global workforce (approx. 4,375 employees). The company said that it needs to downsize to “match our expectation of the future of travel.” In accordance with local regulations, Booking.com expects to inform affected employees starting in September and lasting through the end of the year. Its sister companies Kayak, OpenTable, and Agoda (all owned by the same holding company) already conducted layoffs earlier in the year.

🏢 Buy.com ∙ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 87 employees (100%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Buy.com, a U.S. e-commerce site acquired by Rakuten, will be shutting down over the next two months. All 87 employees will be laid off.

In case you missed it, check out our standalone posts about layoffs from these companies:

Oyo

Oyo UK launches talent directory for laid-off employees

Layoff list, ,

🌎 London ∙ 👩 At least 34 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Oyo, a lodging startup headquartered in India, has cut hundreds of employees globally as the pandemic decimates its business.

In the wake of these layoffs, the Oyo UK division released a talent directory to showcase a few of its affected employees (see link 👇). Employees were told in May that most of the UK staff would be laid off, numbering approximately 150-200 people.

It’s not clear whether the talent directory is meant to cover the May layoffs, or if there’s been a new round in July. The Oyo layoff list features 34 ex-employees, many of whom are in sales.

According to a recent internal memo, Oyo’s global revenue has dropped to ~30% of pre-COVID levels amid declining hotel occupancy rates.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 7/16/20

Roundup, , , , ,

Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

In case you missed it — we recently looked at usage data from the Layoffs.fyi List to see what types of laid-off employees were getting the most attention from recruiters. Among the findings: there are 4x as many searches for laid-off engineers as there are for the next most popular function (design). You can read the full analysis here.

🏢 OnDeck ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 20% of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Small business lending company OnDeck laid off 20% of its staff, two sources told Layoffs.fyi. Finance blog deBanked attempted to email OnDeck’s head of corporate communications for comment, but received an auto-reply saying that he was no longer with the company.

🏢 Yelp ∙ 🌎SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 63 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Local reviews site Yelp plans to bring back “nearly all” of the 1,100 employees it furloughed in April, citing “cautious optimism” about the economic recovery. However, 63 employees will be laid off as a result of Yelp’s decision to keep its offices closed into next year.

🏢 Optimizely ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 60 employees (15%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A maker of A/B testing software, Optimizely laid off 60 employees (15%). Laid-off employees will receive severance pay and six months of COBRA (through 2020), and will be allowed to keep their laptop.

🏢 Vox Media ∙ 🌎 Washington D.C. ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Vox Media, the owner of New York Magazine, The Verge, SBNation and Eater, previously furloughed 100 employees in April. Vox is planning to permanently lay off many of those employees, and may cut additional jobs as well. The company plans to miss its 2020 forecast by 25%, due in part to the pandemic’s impact on its coverage areas of sports and real estate.

🏢 Skyscanner ∙ 🌎 Edinburgh ∙ 👩 300 employees (20%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A flight comparison website based in Scotland, Skyscanner plans to close or scale back many of its global offices outside the U.K. The company’s revenues “have been hit significantly,” and it expects a full recovery to be “several quarters or possibly years away” due to the pandemic’s disruption on travel.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 7/9/20

Roundup, , , , , ,

Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic.

🏢 Oyo USA ∙ 🌎 Dallas ∙ 👩 Hundreds of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A global lodging company headquartered in India, Oyo permanently laid off a “large majority” of the U.S. employees it furloughed in April. A laid-off employee tells Layoffs.fyi that 90% of the U.S. team was affected, likely numbering hundreds of people. In an internal memo, Oyo’s COO said that its U.S. business is “showing positive signs of recovery.” However, U.S. revenue is still 25% below January’s levels, with global revenue only at ~30% of pre-COVID levels.

🏢 Funding Circle ∙ 🌎San Francisco ∙ 👩 85 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A London-based lending platform for small businesses, Funding Circle will lay off 85 U.S. employees to help its U.S. business move towards profitability. The company’s San Francisco technology development team will be consolidated to the U.K., and its sales and marketing operations will be moved to Denver.

🏢 The Wing ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 56 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A co-working space for women, The Wing laid off an additional 56 employees after cutting half of its team in April. The company’s workspaces continue to be closed due to the pandemic, threatening its primary source of revenue. Laid-off employees will receive two months of severance pay along with extended healthcare benefits.

🏢 Hired ∙ 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A hiring marketplace that matches tech companies with job candidates, Hired is the latest recruiting startup to conduct a layoff during the pandemic. The number of employees laid off is unknown, though one Layoffs.fyi source says that at least 5 engineers and possibly up to 50 employees total were affected.

🏢 Kongregate ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 12 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A video game publisher and web gaming portal, Kongregate laid off 12 employees as part of a strategy shift. The company will be focusing more on developing games internally rather than publishing Flash-based games made by others. Kongregate apologized that some employees found out about their layoff through a direct deposit notification.

🏢 Havenly ∙ 🌎 Denver ∙ 👩 5 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • An online interior design service, Havenly laid off 5 full-time workers and some temp workers in the spring. However, the company has begun hiring again in recent weeks, due to rising demand from people wanting to improve their living space during shelter-in-place.
Agoda

Agoda laid off 1,500 employees, launches public alumni directory

Layoff list,

🌎 Malaysia, Thailand ∙ 👩 1,500 employees (25%) ∙ 🖥 All departments

Agoda, an Asian hotel booking website, laid off 1,500 employees (25%) aross 30 countries last week. Its CEO said that most of the cuts were in Agoda’s Customer Experience Group, but that product, IT, finance, partner services, marketing and Rocketmiles were also affected.

Agoda is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings, which also owns Priceline, Kayak, OpenTable, and Booking.com. Last month, Kayak and OpenTable laid off or furloughed 400 employees.

Even though many Asian countries are now recovering from COVID-19, Agoda cited a deep and prolonged impact on the travel industry.

The company launched an official Agoda talent directory to support departing employees (see link below 👇 ). The Agoda layoff list features over 400 ex-employees, mostly in Southeast Asia.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.