Airbnb IPO and past layoffs

Amazon
amazavg

Go to company page Amazon

amazavg
Dec 13, 2020 18 Comments

Airbnb Leaders or experts in tech - I understand everything is business but please explain why there was a layoff in recent past during pandemic if company valuation was supposed to be in billions.

What exactly was the thought process?

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 18 Comments
  • VMware
    OfxE41

    Go to company page VMware

    OfxE41
    When layoffs happened, the decision was made made based on certain projections for the next few years. Projections consider various different scenarios. No one knew what COVID impact would look like over the year. So companies took their worst case scenario and acted based on that.

    Always remember that companies optimize for shareholder value first. Company mission, goals and employees come after that. When all these align, lifeโ€™s good for all. When thereโ€™s any misalignment, every goal will change except the first goal.
    Dec 13, 2020 1
  • VMware
    cringewthy

    Go to company page VMware

    cringewthy
    Even they didnโ€™t know that the company would be valued this much.
    Dec 13, 2020 2
    • Amazon
      amazavg

      Go to company page Amazon

      amazavg
      OP
      For an average joe itโ€™s hard to understand that they didnโ€™t had clue about their finances, how much in general a company saves by layoffs in such scenarios? Iโ€™ve seen multiple talented people of industry let go. They couldโ€™ve waited till IPO and then went for layoffs if things didnโ€™t turned out well. May be Iโ€™m thinking human side too much and thatโ€™s not how business works.
      Dec 13, 2020
    • VMware
      cringewthy

      Go to company page VMware

      cringewthy
      https://youtu.be/Yh4okQ7d3Qk

      Chesky learning about the valuation, mentions it would be at $30 a share due debt financing. Their debt financing is actually quite bad (very high interest rate).
      Dec 13, 2020
  • New
    smeegloh

    New

    smeegloh
    Hindsight is 20/20, how the heck would they know if travel would recover locally so quick.
    Dec 13, 2020 0
  • They knew what was coming and wanted to keep as much stock as possible for themselves ๐Ÿ˜Ž
    Dec 13, 2020 0
  • Apple
    lJuy24

    Go to company page Apple

    lJuy24
    They were planning for the worse case back in may. Back then no one knew how the COVID situation will be in the future.

    Even if not, that gives them a good excuse to do a cleanup of the workforce.
    Dec 13, 2020 0