Stock Prices of Beneficiary Companies Plummet After Pandemic Ends... Wave of Layoffs Follows

Zoom, 15% Layoffs Followed by Additional 2% Cut in One Year
Peloton Shares Drop Over 20% Due to Poor Performance
"Over 30,000 Tech Workers Laid Off from More Than 100 Companies This Year"

US IT companies that gained fame as beneficiaries of the pandemic are suffering from consecutive restructurings and stock price declines.

Zoom, which emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic with its video conferencing platform, announced on the 1st (local time) that it plans to cut 2% of its total workforce (about 150 employees). This comes one year after reducing 15% of its total employees (about 1,300 employees) in February last year due to economic uncertainty.

Zoom stated, "This is an adjustment process to add capabilities and increase employment in key areas that will lead the future," adding, "Employment in artificial intelligence, sales, product, and operations will continue."

[Photo by Yonhap News]

Peloton Interactive, a US home training company, saw its stock price fall 24.3% on the 1st (local time), closing at $4.21. This is the lowest price since its IPO in 2019.

Peloton reported a net loss of $194.9 million (about 260 billion KRW) in the previous fiscal quarter. Subsequently, it lowered its annual revenue forecast to $2.68 billion to $2.75 billion, disappointing investors.

Peloton is a representative pandemic beneficiary company that grew by selling home treadmills and bikes during the pandemic. Its stock price, which was only $30, surged past $160 at the end of 2020 thanks to the home training craze. However, as growth slowed after the pandemic, the stock price plummeted 76% and 78% in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and recorded a 23% decline last year.

Barry McCarthy, Peloton’s CEO, said in a shareholder letter, "We are exploring various ways to accelerate the company’s growth."

Meanwhile, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site tracking layoffs in the tech sector, more than 30,000 people lost their jobs at over 100 IT companies this year alone.

Cloud software company Okta also announced it will lay off 7% of its total workforce (about 400 employees) on the same day. Online payment service provider PayPal announced plans to cut 2,500 jobs, and Microsoft (MS) also revealed it will reduce about 1,900 employees in its gaming division.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, after laying off more than 1,000 technical and advertising staff, decided to eliminate about 100 jobs at its video platform YouTube. E-commerce companies Amazon and online marketplace eBay also plan to lay off about 1,000 employees each.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.