UnitySoftware will fire about 25% of its workforce, i.e. will leave at home 1,800 people. The company itself declared it. Notably, Unity shares rose 5% following the announcement. Evidently the markets reacted well to the news.
It's about the round of layoffs largest ever for the San Francisco-based company, which will be completed at the end of March. This is the fourth time Unity has announced layoffs since July 2022.
For those who don't know, Unity Software is the company behind Unity, the most used graphics engine in the world, particularly in the mobile sector. It matters 1.1 million monthly active developersincluding huge studios like Niantic and Blizzard.
A dramatic situation
The cuts will affect all sectors of the company, all teams spread across all locations. This is one of the decisions taken as part of the total reset announced by CEO Jim Whitehurst in November.
In a message sent Monday to Unity employees, Whitehurst wrote: “We are … reducing the number of things we do to focus on our core business and finding long-term success and profits.”
Whitehurst did not provide details about the others changes from the company, but a Unity representative confirmed that more are coming soon.
The new layoffs follow a tough period for Unity and show the undeniable crisis it is going through. In September last year Unity tried to impose an installation tax on developers, resulting in a real revolt from developers, as well as a collapse in the value of the company's shares. The situation soon became so serious that managers had to take a step back and modify the tax.
After the riots, the CEO at the time, John Riccitiello, retired, making way for Jim Whitehurst, former president of IBM, as interim CEO. The announcement of the reset arrived in November, which resulted in a huge cut in staff.
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