A traveler arriving at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport appears to be like for floor transportation throughout a statewide day of motion to demand that ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft comply with California regulation and grant drivers “primary worker rights” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 20, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Experience-sharing app Lyft will lay off a big variety of staff one week into new CEO David Risher’s tenure, the corporate announced Friday.
A spokesperson for Lyft declined to touch upon the precise variety of cuts, however the Wall Avenue Journal reported that the corporate would lay off at the least 1,200 employees, or round 30% of its 4,000-person workforce.
“I am confirming that we’ll considerably cut back the dimensions of the staff as a part of a restructuring to give attention to higher assembly the wants of riders and drivers,” Risher advised Lyft staff in an e-mail that was printed on Lyft’s blog. Risher’s appointment was introduced in March and went into impact April 17.
Lyft inventory was unchanged on the information. The corporate beforehand reduced its headcount in November, reducing 700 jobs, or about 13% of the workforce.
“We should be a quicker, flatter firm the place everyone seems to be nearer to our riders and drivers so we will ship on this objective,” Risher wrote on Friday.
Risher, a former Amazon govt, advised staff in a city corridor a couple of weeks in the past that layoffs have been imminent.
Lyft has struggled since its IPO in 2019 as its main competitor Uber has remained forward by way of market share and market capitalization. Lyft debuted at $72 and now trades beneath $10.
“David has made clear to the corporate that his focus is on creating an awesome and reasonably priced expertise for riders and bettering drivers’ earnings,” a Lyft spokesperson advised CNBC. “This can be a onerous determination and one we’re not making evenly.”
Tech layoffs started in earnest late 2022, and have continued into the brand new yr. Earlier this week, Meta carried out a beforehand introduced spherical of cuts. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and lots of different tech firms have collectively laid off over 172,000 staff in 2023, in accordance with layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi.
Lyft mentioned the restructuring would not impression beforehand issued steering. The corporate is ready to report earnings for the primary quarter of 2023 on Might 4.
WATCH: Lyft corporate shake-up
