Taboola, the publicly traded Israeli web content recommendation company, is now the latest Israel Startup Nation firm forced to make layoffs due to the global financial crisis hat has seen a continuing fall in global indexes. The company is letting go of 6% of its workforce, or about 100 employees.
This move places Taboola in good company, or bad company as the case may be. Already in September Firebolt, an Israeli startup and a unicorn that calls itself the world’s fastest cloud data warehouse, purpose-built for delivering a new grade of analytic experiences over big data, was also forced to make cuts. And Israeli uber-success story Snapchat has also been forced to make cutbacks, letting go of about 20% of its total workforce, including 30 people at its research and development center located in Herzliya, Israel.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at office@jewishbusinessnews.com.
Thank you.
The company expects this cost restructuring to result in $50 million of savings in operating expenses in 2023, with a significant portion translating to improved Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow. Taboola says that the savings will be achieved by restructuring teams across geographies primarily in lower priority activities. The company will also trim an additional $23 million from 2023 discretionary expense budgets and reduce capital expenditures by an additional $15 million in 2023.
“We are setting ourselves up for the long term success of Taboola and investing in areas related to our winning aspirations, having our teams be even more focused, and coming out of the global slowdown stronger,” said Adam Singolda, Founder and CEO, Taboola. “We make these necessary changes with a heavy heart, and I personally thank all of the wonderful Taboolars with whom we must part ways. We are taking steps to treat our departing teammates with the respect and appreciation they deserve.”
Taboola powers recommendations for the open web, helping people discover things they may like. The company’s platform, powered by artificial intelligence, is used by digital properties, including websites, devices and mobile apps, to drive monetization and user engagement. Taboola has long-term partnerships with some of the top digital properties in the world, including CNBC, NBC News, Business Insider, The Independent and El Mundo. More than 13,000 advertisers use Taboola to reach over 500 million daily active users in a brand-safe environment. The company has offices in 18 cities worldwide, including New York and Tel Aviv.
“This plan will enable investment where Taboola sees opportunities for growth, “the company explained, “with resources focused on the company’s top three priorities: improving its performance advertising business, driving further growth in e-Commerce, and growing its recently launched header bidding business.”
Taboola expects this program to be largely completed by year-end with a majority of the changes taking place in 2022. The company reaffirmed guidance for Q3 2022 and has stated it expects to generate over $152M in Adjusted EBITDA for FY 2022.
