[throwawayxy1]

Why would any company fire anybody if they are generating money for them?

[jacobsenscott]

To drive down wages. All tech companies firing thousands of people at the same time is a simple way to do this. Hire back in a year at much reduced salaries and benefits.

[jackcviers3]

I cynically suspect this to be the case. As soon as one does it; the others have to follow to have any hope of controlling the tech salary bubble. They Don have to collude, just watch and match percentages.

[simplotek]

> Why would any company fire anybody if they are generating money for them?

Amazon has been cutting teams that either could not justify their existence or worked in money-losing investments. Alexa was a very public project getting the axe.

[Sakos]

I still don't understand why they axed Alexa. It doesn't make any sense to me in the context of the rest of their business.

[simplotek]

> I still don't understand why they axed Alexa.

Alexa was described as "a colossal failure" which lost 10 billion dollars last year alone.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-co...

[Sakos]

I don't really understand how that division could rack up $10 billion in losses in a single year either.

[rileyphone]

Because it’s an embarrassing product and Jassy doesn’t love it like Bezos.

[mathattack]

They think these 18,000 aren’t helping making enough money to justify the costs.

[whiplash451]

There is an open window for tech companies to free-ride layoffs at the moment, that's what's happening. And they are taking this opportunity to its fullest.