Zoom to lay off 1,300 as WFH era ends

ZOOM is to lay 1,300 people off, letting go of about 15pc of its workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic’s working-fromhome culture comes to a crashing halt.

Eric Yuan, the chief executive, said: “We have made the tough but necessary decision to say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues.” California-based Zoom’s share price soared more than 7pc as the news broke, rising up to $83 (£69).

Mr Yuan also pledged to reduce his salary by 98pc and forgo his annual bonus. The company boss is worth about $4bn, according to Bloomberg estimates.

The news comes as Usbased “big tech” companies make redundancies amid slowing sales as the world returns to pre-pandemic ways of working. Some estimates say as many as 85,000 tech employees have been made redundant since the start of 2023. In its results for the three months to October 2022, Zoom’s sales rose 5pc.

Yet profits declined to $48.4m, down from $340m.

Zoom’s share price more than doubled during the 12 months to March 2021, briefly quadrupling its pre-pandemic valuation of $32bn.

It is now worth about $24bn.