Spotify on Monday morning became the latest tech company to announce a major round of layoffs. The Stockholm-based music streaming service is cutting 6 percent of its global workforce as part of a larger corporate restructuring aimed at improving efficiency.
In a blog post announcing the layoffs, CEO Daniel Ek said the company overestimated its ability to withstand the slowdown in advertising spending that came with an uncertain macroeconomic situation.
"In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth," he wrote. "I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today."
Spotify benefited enormously in the early days of the pandemic, when shutdowns pushed users to spend even more time online, encouraging firms to make heavy investments.
Ek noted that operational expenditures were increasing at twice the rate of revenue growth, a situation "that would have been unsustainable long-term in any climate, but with a challenging macro environment, it would be even more difficult to close the gap."
With Spotify's "historic focus on growth," Ek added that many will see the announcement as a shift in culture, but stressed the need to evolve as the business grows.
Along with the layoffs, Spotify is reshuffling its organizational chart. Gustav Söderström is taking over as chief product officer, and Alex Norström will become the chief business officer, essentially helping Ek run the day-to-day operations of the company as co-presidents.
In addition, Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff is stepping down.
"While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency," wrote Ek in a blog post. "We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
