LinkedIn.com, the career-focused social media online network owned by Microsoft, has announced that it will lay off 716 employees. The news was confirmed in a message to employees from CEO Ryan Roslansky which was later posted to the company’s website.
In his message, Roslansky noted that the company had just celebrated its 20th birthday last week and framed the workforce news in terms of difficult decisions the company has made over the years to execute on its vision.
LinkedIn's Reorganization Explained
Roslansky said that the company is seeing slower revenue growth and shifts in customer behavior. To address the changes it is reorganizing its global business organization.
- The business productivity team will be “sunsetted” with some components of it being integrated into other parts of the business. The product and engineering teams will take the lead for the technology roadmap.
- The company will reduce management roles and broaden responsibility to help with faster decision making. It will also expand the use of vendors.
- The company is also taking the opportunity to shift where its talent is. Roslansky said LinkedIn will create more than 250 new roles in specific segments of its operations, new business, and account management teams starting next week.
LinkedIn is also changing its strategy for China, pulling its InCareer local jobs app in China by August 9. The app had experienced some success, but had also seen fierce competition and a tough macroeconomic environment, according to Roslansy’s message.
LinkedIn's Financial Results and Outlook
In an earnings call on April 25, LinkedIn’s parent Microsoft noted that the business unit had experienced record engagement with more than 930 million members using the professional social network. Member growth accelerated for the seventh consecutive quarter. Revenue increased by 8% and 10% in constant currency, driven by growth in Talent Solutions. Looking ahead, the company said it expected mid-single digits revenue growth driven by Talent Solutions.
In the past six months, more than 270,000 technology jobs have been cut globally according to the tracking site Layoffs.fyi.