Instacart, Mozilla to lay off dozens amid restructuring
Instacart and Mozilla have joined the ranks of Bay Area tech firms announcing workforce reductions.
On Tuesday, Instacart revealed a restructuring plan that would fire 250 employees, approximately 7% of its staff.
The San Francisco-based grocery delivery service specified that the layoffs would primarily impact middle management to realign teams involved in big-picture projects, such as advertising on platforms like Roku and Google Ads.
Additionally, Instacart announced the departure of three key executives — Chief Operating Officer Asha Sharma, Chief Technology Officer Varouj Chitilian and Chief Architect JJ Zhuang — citing personal reasons.
The company will fill only the CTO role, according to CNBC, which first reported the layoffs.
According to analyst estimates from the London Stock Exchange Group, Instacart reported revenue of $803 million during the fourth quarter, aligning closely with Wall Street expectations of $804 million.
In its September IPO prospectus, Instacart outlined a strategic emphasis on integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning features into its platform, recognizing these elements as crucial for propelling “future growth.”
Similarly, Mozilla, the creator of the Firefox web browser, is undergoing a restructuring led by its new CEO, Laura Chambers, resulting in the elimination of approximately 60 jobs.
The reduction represents around 5% of the company’s San Francisco workforce, with a focus on the product development organization, as outlined in a memo to employees on Tuesday.
“We’re scaling back investment in some product areas in order to focus on areas that we feel have the greatest chance of success,” Mozilla said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg. “We intend to re-prioritize resources against products like Firefox Mobile, where there’s a significant opportunity to grow and establish a better model for the industry.”
Mozilla previously laid off 250 employees in August 2020.
The latest job cuts follow Pure Storage, the Santa Clara data security company, reducing about 4% of its global workforce, resulting in approximately 275 layoffs, last week.
Pure Storage cited a “rebalancing initiative” for the downsizing in a memo shared by Blocks & Files.
In recent months, various technology firms, including DocuSign, Amazon, Snap, Okta, PayPal, Block, Zoom, Salesforce, eBay and Google, have conducted layoffs.
San Jose tech giant Cisco is also preparing to lay off thousands of employees in its latest reorganization effort, with an official announcement expected, potentially coinciding with the company’s earnings call scheduled for Wednesday.