Amazon Reviewing Alexa, Other Money Losing Businesses as it Searches For Cost Cuts: Wall St. Journal

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that Amazon.com (US:AMZN) Chief Executive Andy Jassy is leading a cost-cutting review at the company and is paring back nonprofitable businesses, including its Alexa operations.

The report cited people familiar with the matter.

The report said Amazon, whose stock is down by almost half this year, has been experiencing a slowdown in its core retail business as it tries to manage costs from its logistics network.  According to the report, Amazon advised employees in the nonprofitable units to look for work at other Amazon operations.

Between 2019 and the end of 2021, Amazon hired more than 800,000 employees to meet pandemic demand. The paper also noted it spent more than $10 billion on acquisitions of a robot device-maker, a movie-and-television studio and a primary-care healthcare company.

The Journal said the company told it, “Our senior leadership team regularly reviews our investment outlook and financial performance, including as part of our annual operating plan review,” a company spokesman said in a statement. “As part of this year’s review, we’re taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimize costs.”

The report said Amazon’s looking at whether to focus on trying to add new Alexa capabilities.
The Amazon spokesman told the paper that the company is “as optimistic about Alexa’s future today as we’ve ever been, and it remains an important business and area of investment for Amazon.” He said customer interactions with Alexa have increased by more than 30% in the past year.

Last week, Amazon announced that it was instituting a hiring freeze across corporate jobs.

This article originally appeared on Fintel