Amazon starts a new round of layoffs, dismissing hundreds of people from multiple departments

It is learned that on Wednesday, Amazon announced that it will lay off hundreds of employees from its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. This is a new round of targeted layoffs since Amazon began large-scale layoffs in November 2022.

Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Amazon Prime Video and MGM's studio divisions , sent an email to employees on Wednesday (January 10) informing them of the layoffs.

According to the email, Amazon will lay off hundreds of employees in its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions. Employees in the United States will be notified by the end of Wednesday, while employees in other regions will be notified this week.

Hopkins explained that the purpose of the layoffs was to "prioritize investments for the long-term success of the company so that we can focus on areas of interest to our clients."

He said that over the past year, Amazon has re-examined almost all of its businesses to improve its operational capabilities and provide global users with more groundbreaking movies, TV shows and live sports, as well as personalized, easy-to-use entertainment experiences. As a result, Amazon has identified opportunities to reduce or stop investment in certain areas while focusing on content and product plans that can have the greatest impact.

During the pandemic, Amazon had been hiring aggressively, but in 2023 it also joined the wave of layoffs among US tech giants, laying off 27,000 people last year.

It is worth noting that on the same day of the layoffs, Amazon’s live streaming division Twitch also announced that it would lay off 500 employees.