Discord layoffs

Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov

Following a spate of layoffs at Amazon-owned subsidiaries like Prime Video, Twitch, and Audible, it appears more layoffs are on the horizon. Discord has announced layoffs that will impact 170 workers at its San Francisco headquarters.

Discord says the employees will leave on February 2, with dozens of engineers among those impacted. Product managers, data scientists, and the trust and safety team were also impacted. In a memo sent to his staff, Discord CEO Jason Citron said the company would lose around 17% of its staff. The memo notes that the company is not profitable yet and that it is still trying to revive user growth after its pandemic surge.

“Today we are making the unfortunate and difficult decision to reduce the size of Discord’s workforce by 17%. This means we are saying goodbye to 170 of our talented colleagues. This is a decision we did not take lightly, but it is one that we have conviction in to better serve our users, our business, and our mission over the long term.”

“We grew quickly and expanded our workforce, increasing by 5x since 2020. As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated. Today, we are increasingly clear on the need to sharpen our focus and improve the way we world together to bring more agility to our organization.”

Departing employees will receive five months of salary, plus an additional week for every full year at Discord. That includes five months of benefit continuation and three months of outplacement services. Discord will also provide these employees with continued access to their health care plan through 2024.

Discord has raised more than $1 billion in funding, with around $700 million in cash on its balance sheet. The company has contemplated going public after turning down a $12 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft in 2021—but it’s unclear how serious any IPO effort will be.