Roku to Lay Off 10% of Workforce, Perform ‘Strategic Review’ of Content Portfolio
Roku will lay off 10% of its workforce, equating to over 300 employees, in an effort to reign in company costs, according to an SEC filing on Wednesday.
The company has made the decision to reduce its operating expenses by additionally removing specific licensed and owned programming from the platform after a “strategic review of its content portfolio,” which will result in an estimated charge of between $55 million and $65 million.
Roku’s moves are intended to “bring down its year-over-year operating expense growth rate by consolidating its office space utilization…reducing outside services expenses, and slowing its year-over-year headcount expense growth rate through a workforce reduction,” according to the filing.
For Roku’s second fiscal quarter of 2023, the company beat Wall Street expectations, reporting a smaller-than-expected net loss of $107.6 million, or 76 cents per share. The company’s total revenue increased 11% year over year to $847 million.
In the third quarter of this year, Roku is expecting to incur the majority of the restructuring charge related to the workforce reduction. This primarily consists of severance and benefit costs which fall in the estimated range of $45 million to $65 million.
According to the filing, Roku now expects “total net revenue in the range of $835 million to $875 million, and adjusted EBITDA in the range of negative $40 million to negative $20 million,” for the company’s third quarter of fiscal 2023.
Roku underwent another round of restructuring in March, with the company cutting 200 jobs, equating to around 6% of its workforce. The company additionally cut 200 positions in November of 2022.
In April, it was discovered that Roku President Charlie Collier received a total compensation package of $53.3 million in 2022. Collier exited his role as CEO of Fox Entertainment last year in order to join Roku, presiding over the streamer’s content and ad sales.
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