Amazon lays off 500 Twitch employees, subleases Twitch San Francisco office

Amazon has slashed even more jobs at its streaming subsidiary Twitch.

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After the latest round of layoffs announced by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, the streamer will have laid off nearly 1,000 workers. Amazon is cutting costs where it can and Twitch, which apparently may not be profitable, is a prime cut.

The news was confirmed with an official announcement by Clancy shortly after a Bloomberg report about the layoffs had been published.

In the memo, Clancy said:

"Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people across Twitch.

"This will be a very hard day. Our service exists to empower communities to create, together, and every single one of you has played a vital role in fostering our community and furthering that mission."

Twitch had previously laid off 400 workers in March 2023. Clancy goes on to say that the cuts are necessary to ensure Twitch is still around "for the long run":

"Over the last year, we've been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business."

The CEO continues by confirming $1 billion had been paid out to creators last year and that the Twitch business "remains strong."

Other reports from the San Francisco Chronicle indicate that Amazon is trying to sub-lease Twitch's HQ office in San Francisco. Amazon wants to sub-lease around 25% of the 185,000 square foot office at 350 Bush Street.