The Wall Street Journal reports that Unity, which has already laid off two employees in the past year, has begun another round of downsizing.
Unity will reduce its workforce by about 600 employees this time, accounting for almost 8 percent of its total global staff. After three layoffs, Unity’s total workforce has dropped from more than 8,000 to about 7,000, and the company also intends to reduce the number of global offices in the future.
Unity representatives did not comment much on the layoffs, but its CEO John Riccitiello said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “It’s all about enabling Unity to achieve higher growth. It’s clear that we have too many layers in the business.”
The report says that some middle management will be affected in this Unity layoff. Also starting this June, Unity will switch to a hybrid work model, with employees expected to be required to work in the office three days a week.
Unlike other companies that have laid off employees due to poor performance, Unity just recently produced the best quarterly and annual reports in the company’s history. Their revenue in Q4 reached $451 million (currently about RMB 3.116 billion), a 43% year-over-year jump, and it was Unity’s first profitable quarter since becoming a public company. But such results don’t seem to impress investors, as Unity’s stock has fallen 11 percent since the beginning of the year.
