Amazon begins cost-cutting review, unprofitable business units under scanner: Report

In the post-Covid period, Amazon has witnessed a slowdown in its retail business (Image: Reuters)

American e-commerce giant Amazon has begun a cost-cutting review, with the company's unprofitable business units being brought under the scanner, a report said on November 10.

The review is being led by Amazon Inc's chief executive officer Andy Jassy, who is assessing the performance of the sub-entities that have not broken into profit, sources privy to the development told the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon has asked staff working in some of the unprofitable units to find jobs elsewhere in the company, as the teams on which they were currently onboarded were being shut down or suspended, the report said, citing the persons who are familiar with the details.

Amazon was yet to react to the news at the time of writing this report. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the developments.

Also Read | Amazon hits pause; a look at tech giants which have announced layoffs, hiring freeze

The report comes a week after the company announced a freeze in its corporate workforce hiring, citing the "unusual macro-economic environment".

"We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months, and will continue to monitor what we're seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense," Beth Galetti, senior vice-president of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in a blog post.

With inflation hitting decades-high in the United States, and the threat of a global recession looming, a number of Big Tech companies have begun downsizing their operations and cutting jobs.

Facebook-parent Meta Platforms on November 9 announced the sacking over 11,000 employees, which is nearly 13 percent of its total workforce. The company is also set to extend the freeze it has imposed on new hiring.

Social media platform Twitter has laid off more than 3,700 employees in recent days. The move is necessary to cut down the "loss of $4 million per day" which the company is currently incurring, according to its new chief executive officer Elon Musk.