Sodastream, Playtika, Otonomo and CyCognito are all making cutbacks. Unicorns, new firms and companies that have already “made it” with their exits are all suffering these days as the world is going through a financial crisis.
The Israeli-founded mobile gaming giant Playtika is laying off of 610 employees, or 15% of the company’s workforce. The move comes just six months after American private equity firm Joffre Capital bought Playtika’s 20% controlling stake, which left the company with an $8.5 billion valuation. Platika went public 2 years ago.
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Playtika CEO and Founder Robert Antokol explained the move in an e-mail sent to the company’s employees.
“The news I share with you today is difficult. After intense deliberation, we have decided to reduce our workforce by about 15 percent, saying goodbye to wonderful and talented colleagues and friends,” wrote Antokol. “This decision has not come easy, yet we think it necessary to best position Playtika for the future. As we assess the current environment and look toward the future, Playtika must return to our roots of excellence through agility, efficiency, creativity and being obsessed with winning to deliver the most fun forms of mobile entertainment to our players.”
Antokol also said that Playtika will be “balancing teams” and “redeploying talent, winding down non-core initiatives and consolidating studios for greater efficiency and a stronger focus on optimization.”
Playtika previously laid off 300 employees in March.
Otonomo Technologies Ltd., an Israeli mobility intelligence company, which is already in danger of being dropped from the NASDAQ as a publicly traded company, is firing 50% of the company’s remaining workforce. The company, which only went public on the NASDAQ a little over a year ago and once held a market cap of well over $1 billion, lost 90% of its value over time and is now worth just $62 million.
“We’re making the hardest changes we have had to make in Otonomo’s history,” CEO Ben Volkow wrote in an email to employees. “We are significantly reducing the size of our team and regretfully saying goodbye to many talented teammates.”
Founded in 2015, Otonomo boasts that it is building the “preeminent mobility intelligence platform for powering the next generation of automotive, fleet, insurance, transportation, and mobility services.”
Sodastream, the Israeli manufacturer of home make-it-yourself carbonated beverage devices, will be laying off up to 200 people, (about 5% of the workforce) including 120 employees at the company’s plant located in the south of Israel.
Sodastream explained the move in a statement saying that it expanded its workforce recently due to the increased demand during the Covid crisis, but that this demand has now dropped.
“In the past few years, Sodastream has expanded its workforce in response to the growth that it has experienced for a long period,” said the company, “particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Current production forecasts indicate a return to the level of demand seen in the past. At the same time, the company is exposed to volatile global market conditions that have an impact on its business.”
CyCognito, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, laid off about 15% of its people, or roughly 30 people. Half of the people being let go are said to work in Israel. And this is a company that raised $100 million just one year ago.
Founded in 2017 by national intelligence agency veterans CEO Rob Gurzeev and CTO Dima Potekhin, CyCognito declares that it can solve one of the most fundamental business problems in cybersecurity.
