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Grab fires 1,000 employees in largest mass layoff since COVID-19
Grab's latest layoff is the tech giant's biggest since the pandemic, and follows in the footsteps of other tech giants in the region as they batten down during the ongoing tech winter.
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Grab Indonesia drivers use electric motorcycles in this handout photo dated Nov. 26, 2020 for an event in Bali to launch the tech giant’s fleet of electric motorcycles. (Courtesy of/Grab)
G
rab CEO Anthony Tan announced on Monday that the Singapore-based tech giant had let go of 1,000 employees as the company faced pressure to quickly become profitable.
It is Grab’s largest mass layoff since the pandemic emerged in 2020, when the company laid off 360 employees citing economic impacts due to COVID-19.
The layoff follows Grab’s announcement last September that it would be aiming for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to break even this year.
The Business Times reported on Monday that Grab's share price had dropped nearly 70 percent since it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2021, despite its cost-cutting initiatives and promise of profitability.
Read also: Firms think twice about IPOs as tech winter bites
“The primary goal of this exercise is to strategically reorganize ourselves; thus, we can move faster, work smarter, and rebalance our resources across our portfolio in line with our longer-term strategies,” Tan said in a statement on Monday.
He also stressed that the mass layoff was not “a shortcut to profitability” and a need to be adaptable in doing business.
