Snap becomes the latest tech company to cut jobs

Snap, the parent company of messaging app Snapchat, said Monday it would lay off more than 500 employees and join other tech companies in a wave of new cost-cutting measures.

The layoffs amount to 10 percent of the global workforce; the majority will take place in the first quarter of 2024.

“We have made the difficult decision to restructure our team,” the company said in a securities filing, adding that it would require pre-tax expenses of $55 million to $75 million, primarily for severance and related costs.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft have announced layoffs this year, after tens of thousands across the sector last year.

Snap laid off a small number of employees on Friday. Business insider reported.

The company will announce its earnings on Tuesday. Cost-cutting measures at other companies have boosted share prices. Snap shares were trading about 2 percent lower before the market opened Monday.

Like other social media companies that rely on advertising, Snap has had a rough few years. Changes by Apple to its privacy policy in 2021 made it harder for advertisers to track users — something that hurt Snap and also heavily affected Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

Snapchat, which has more than 400 million daily active users, experienced a revenue decline in the first two quarters of last year and only 5 percent growth in the most recent quarter, which ended September 30.

In 2022, Snap cut 20 percent of its workforce, or 1,300 jobs, and also discontinued at least six products. Nearly two dozen product managers were laid off in November, and in September a division that sells augmented reality products to companies was closed, laying off 170 people.