COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Amazon to cut 9 000 more jobs

Amazon.com is laying off an additional 9 000 employees, adding to cuts that were already the largest round of firings in the company’s history.

Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced the cuts internally Monday, saying they would occur in the coming weeks and primarily affect Amazon Web Services, human resources, advertising and the Twitch livestreaming service groups.

“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” he said in his memo, published later to Amazon’s corporate blog.

The e-commerce giant has been laying off mostly corporate workers after a hiring spree during the pandemic left Amazon with too many people. The company last month wrapped up a round of job cuts that totaled about 18 000 workers. Those layoffs landed heaviest on Amazon’s recruiting and human resources teams, its sprawling retail group and devices teams.

The cuts come less than a week after Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. announced that it was laying off another 10 000 employees and closing about 5 000 additional open roles in its own second major round of job cuts. Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a recent internal meeting that the economic climate of layoffs and restructuring could last “many years.”-Fin24

WeBuyCars deal delayed

Transaction Capital - SA's biggest taxi financier - has flagged an up to 46% fall in its core profit measure for its half-year to end-March, with the recent crash in its share price also delaying its plans to bulk up its stake in vehicle dealer WeBuyCars.

Core earnings per share, the group's preferred profit measure which excludes certain non-operational times, is expected to fall in a range of 41% to 46% for continuing operations, the company said in an update, while total headline earnings per share could fall by as much as 375%.

The company has said it plans to dispose of its refurbishment and repairs business, which means accounting for discontinued operations, while also adjusting vehicle levels at WeBuyCars.

Transaction Capital has been in the spotlight after an update last week prompted a crash in its shares back to 2015 levels, with the company flagging a profit fall of at least a fifth for its preferred measure, with margins at WeBuyCars under some pressure, while financier SA Taxi was feeling the strain from a weak economy, among other things.

The profit crash also put a spotlight on the company's management deal, given a trust linked with CEO David Hurwitz had sold a large chunk in December.-Fin24