US streamer Roku is tightening its purse strings, cutting about 10% of employees and taking on further cost-cutting measures to bring down its year-over-year operating expense growth rate.
Roku expects to record a restructuring charge related to the layoffs in an estimated range of $45m to $65m, owing to severance and benefits costs, with the charge to kick in in the third quarter of 2023.
The streamer, that is involved with Toronto 2022 biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story starring Daniel Radcliffe, laid off 200 employees in March (6% employees) and a further 200 in November 2022 (about 7% employees).
As outlined in an SEC filing (financial statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission) submitted today (September 6), Roku will also remove some licensed and owned content from its platform as part of a “strategic review of its content portfolio” – incurring a charge of between $55m and $65m.
Consolidating office space and cutting back on new hires are also part of the plan. An impairment cost of between $160m and $200m is expected, resulting from ceasing to use certain office facilities.
Roku said that excluding the restructuring and impairment charges, the company now expects Q3 net revenue in the range of $835, to $875m, and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in the range of negative $40 million to negative $20 million — slightly better than forecast.
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