Zoom lays off 150 employees, Okta lays off 400 employees

New Delhi: Video communications platform Zoom is laying off around 150 employees, or less than 2 percent of the company’s workforce. Zoom said the layoffs are not company-wide and that it will continue to hire for roles in artificial intelligence, sales, product and all operations throughout 2024.

“We regularly evaluate our teams to ensure alignment with our strategy,” a Zoom spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.
“As part of this effort, we are revamping the roles to add capabilities and continuing to hire in areas that are important for the future,” the spokesperson said.

Last February, Zoom cut about 1,300 jobs, or about 15 percent of its workforce.

In addition to Zoom, cloud software vendor Okta also announced it was laying off about 400 employees, or about 7 percent of its workforce.

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon said that “the reality is that the costs are still very high”. According to the report, Okta shares rose by about 3.6 percent in premarket trading on this news.

McKinnon said the company needed to be more “thoughtful” about where to invest to achieve “long-term success.”

“To grow profitably, we need to run the business with greater efficiency. Although we have taken steps in the right direction, the reality is that the costs are still very high. We need to remain mindful of our overall spend so that we can continue to invest in the areas, products and routes to market with the most opportunity,” the CEO said.