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Economic headwinds continue to look unfavorable for the tech industry. Stocks are down across the board, exacerbated by supply chain woes, inflation, hiked interest rates and a range of other economic challenges. Even the most bullish startup investors, namely the Japanese firm SoftBank, announced they would be cutting back on their investments.
So as murmurs of the second dot-com bubble bursting grow louder, the Bay Area’s dominant industry is taking notice — and its most visible players are cutting back. Many of San Francisco’s and Silicon Valley’s tech companies — ranging from flagship social media brands to nascent startups — are struggling. Brands that had hiring booms in the past two years now face mass layoffs, while even industry titans are grappling with stagnated growth and stalled hiring.
Here is a list of San Francisco and Silicon Valley tech companies that have halted hiring. This list may be updated.
Twitter is facing a unique period of instability, having to deal with not only prevailing market forces but also the looming takeover of Tesla head honcho Elon Musk. On May 12, Bloomberg reported that the company, based in San Francisco, stopped hiring new employees and possibly rescinded offers already made to some candidates. Two executives, general manager of consumer product Kayvon Beykpour and general manager of revenue Bruce Falck, were seemingly pushed out of the company on the same day — and more executives have left in their wake.
Meta
Earlier this month, Insider reported, Menlo Park-based Meta halted hiring new positions in “almost every team” for the rest of 2022, citing the Ukraine invasion and Apple’s heightened privacy measures along with the larger economy for its downturn. The Verge explained Wednesday that the freeze will largely affect engineering roles in more niche teams, including Facebook’s gaming, commerce and children’s messaging platforms. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured staffers that the company would not have to conduct layoffs — at least for now.
Monitors display Coinbase signage during the company’s initial public offering at the Nasdaq market site April 14, 2021, in New York City.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty ImagesCoinbase
Among the more drastic reversals of fortune in the industry comes courtesy of Coinbase, the crypto company founded (and up until recently, headquartered) in San Francisco. In a note to employees last Monday, Chief Operating Officer and President Emilie Choi said the company had planned to triple hiring. But with the crypto industry collapsing in spectacular fashion, Choi announced the company’s plans to “slow hiring and reassess our headcount needs against our highest-priority business goals.” “We’re in a strong position — we have a solid balance sheet and we’ve been through several market downturns before, and we’ve emerged stronger every time,” Choi assured employees and outside observers.
Uber
Acknowledging a “seismic shift” in the market, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an email obtained by CNBC earlier this month that the company plans to cut its spending drastically, including in hiring. Uber stock has fallen 44% so far this year as of Thursday, even as the San Francisco-based company assures continued growth and profitability. “We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate about when and where we add headcount,” Khosrowshahi said in the email. “We will be even more hardcore about costs across the board.”
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