News: Roomba maker iRobot to kick out about 7% of its workforce

Strategic HR

Roomba maker iRobot to kick out about 7% of its workforce

The new round of layoffs at iRobot is being made in anticipation that market conditions will remain challenging into 2023.
Roomba maker iRobot to kick out about 7% of its workforce

Currently, the tech industry is bleeding employees left and right. The new company to join the list of companies laying off employees is Roomba maker iRobot. It announced plans to cut around 7% of its workforce on Monday. 

This step is likely to affect nearly 85 employees, iRobot said in its fourth-quarter earnings report. The company employed 1,254 people as of December 31, 2022.

For the fourth quarter, iRobot posted $84.1 million in losses on $357.9 million in revenue. In the first quarter of 2023, the company is expecting to see muted orders. 

The plan of laying off employees is coming in the midst of the process of being acquired by Amazon. The e-commerce giant announced last August it would buy iRobot for $1.7 billion. However, the deal is still the subject of a Federal Trade Commission antitrust review.

Amazon too sacked several employees since 2022, roughly 18,000 corporate staffers. This isn’t the first round of layoffs by iRobot either. Before this, the company fired about 100 employees in August when iRobot cited its need to better align its cost structure with near-term revenue and cash flow, as well as to improve profitability.

The latest cuts are being made “in anticipation that market conditions will remain challenging into 2023,” the company said in the earnings release. 

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Topics: Strategic HR, #Layoffs, #HRTech

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