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- Amazon Studios and Prime Video insiders expect layoffs this week.
- Amazon has laid off thousands of people, but so far the entertainment division has remained unscathed.
- Studios are sparing no expense to make Amazon a player in Hollywood.
after mass Amazon layoffsSpeculation has been building within Prime Video and Amazon Studios that their next turn will start as early as Wednesday.
Amazon Studios, the tech giant’s TV and film division, is also the source of content for Prime Video, one of the bundled services that drive Amazon Prime membership ($139 per year, or $15 per month in the US).
An insider familiar with the situation — who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the company — said they expected the layoffs to affect Prime Video and Studios, noting that the leaders of both organizations had recently been called to discuss communicating with employees. layoffs.
MGM was also seen as a target for cuts. amazon bought it An $8.45 billion acquisition of a company last year typically eliminates duplication of roles.
“Like any business, we continue to monitor macroeconomic conditions and the needs of our business and may adjust our hiring strategy and team size accordingly,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email.
Amazon’s entertainment business So far, the company’s internal layoffs have been unaffected, and the company has joined other mass layoffs in the technology industry.Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in March it would cut 9,000 jobs Previously announced 18,000 layoffs. Affected sectors include advertising, gaming, cloud computing and retail.The company as a whole employed More than 1.6 million by the end of 2021.
A high-profile but relatively small unit of Amazon, which has a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, Prime Video has been somewhat insulated from the financial pressures facing its entertainment rivals.
Studio head Jen Salke is tasked with establishing herself in Hollywood through TV and film, thereby boosting Amazon’s Prime membership, and has therefore invested heavily in content and talent. Under Salke’s leadership, Studios’ headcount has ballooned by more than 50% to about 1,500 employees since 2018.
But Hollywood is bracing for a potential writers strike The strike could start as early as May, and some industry watchers believe a major entertainment company like Amazon could use the strike as an excuse to cancel unproductive writer deals and other labor costs. Prime Video already has a huge library available in the event of a strike, including international programming in many local languages, as well as entertainment purchased from MGM.
Amazon is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on April 27.
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