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Unity announces layoffs despite increased revenue and reduced losses
- tedivm 3y agoBetween this and their license change fiasco it seems like they're trying to speedrun their way to "company most hated by developers". That said they're apparently making a lot of money doing it, so what do I know.
- yodon 3y ago>They're apparently making a lot of money doing it. No. Unity is not making money, they are losing money. That's the problem. "Reduced losses" means they are losing less money than they were. That's still losing money. Unity was losing money before the licensing fiasco. It's still losing money.
- corethree 3y agoThat's a better frame. The lay offs were necessary. The title frames it as if the layoffs were unnecessary. The title is technically true but the way it's worded is manipulative.
- asdajksah2123 3y agoThere's a lot of companies laying off people even though they're making increasing profits. Unity isn't one of those (even if the C suite was being paid $0 since some are arguing that the top brass salaries are too high). It doesn't make sense to hold them up as an example of a company doing bad layoffs, especially since there's many other very obvious things to criticize them for.
- OskarS 3y agoAccording to the article, they have half a billion dollars in revenue (with currently $154 millon in losses), and that seems plenty to run a company like Unity. Lay-offs are rough, but looking at the numbers, they make sense in a cold-hearted capitalist sort-of way if the goal is to reach profitability. Certainly much more so than the runtime fee thing.
- giantg2 3y agoIt really depends. A company has to at least break even for longterm success. Otherwise, there won't be enough money to pay workers.
- dartos 3y agoTell that to the entire tech sector pre-2020.
- dragontamer 3y agoIt's still the truth, even if the tech sector forgot the truth.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago$921M loss in 2022. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/n... $570M loss just through Sep 30. https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c99810-0173-4d43-888c-b5feba311d3f.pdf https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c9981...
- riku_iki 3y agoThat form says that out of 570M loss, 250M was from repurchase of stocks, but maybe they then spend it on RSUs for employees.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoYes, share buybacks for the purposes of returning cash to shareholders (and dividends) are not expenses on an income statement, hence they are not included in the calculation for net income.
- riku_iki 3y agoIn this case it is on income statement
- eptcyka 3y agoThey're still at a net loss.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ErneX 3y agoTFA says they are losing 125 million.
- johndevor 3y agoYes, but the top brass are racking in tens of millions.
- rewmie 3y ago> Yes, but the top brass are racking in tens of millions. I agree that leadership should lead by example. However, tens of millions represent a small fraction of the > 100 million hemorrhaging that the company is reporting.
- edgyquant 3y ago10% is not a small fraction
- robertlagrant 3y agoMost of it is shares, not cash. Shares aren't comparable to cash here at all.
- marcosdumay 3y agoThat tens of millions is supposed to be each, isn't it? It describes the one individual getting the most, but I don't know how it falls down through the hierarchy.
- bluefirebrand 3y agoIf you look at the total compensation of top 5 earners at Unity, it's damn close to 100 million. https://www1.salary.com/Unity-Software-Inc-Executive-Salaries.html https://www1.salary.com/Unity-Software-Inc-Executive-Salarie... The CMO alone makes 32 million? Absolutely wild.
- 3y ago
- throwawaysleep 3y agoReduced losses still means losses though.
- jdlyga 3y agoThe charge per install fiasco seemed like a last ditch effort. I have no doubt that Unity has been having financial issues for a while, and they were looking for a way to bump the needle.
- kuchenbecker 3y agoYeah, the issue is one of: 1 - Unity has an unprofitable Business model 2 - Unity chose their business model 3 - Changing the business model will, as we have now seen, require time. This is the startup trouble I see in that all the promises of the previous decade are void in the fave of financial hardship.
- giantg2 3y agoI feel like at least they tried a pricing change before going to layoffs. A lot of places would have gone straight to cutting people.
- newswasboring 3y agoThey could have also tried cutting top management salaries before laying off developers.
- giantg2 3y agoMaybe, that seems extremely rare though. Didn't they already roll some upper management heads?
- newswasboring 3y agoThey fired one person (CEO) and probably proceeded to hire someone else at a higher salary. Of course it's rare, upper management will never decide to make less money personally in the short term. The only time I've heard of this happening is in some Japanese companies.
- tokai 3y agoWould have been much healthier for their business to cut people before they burn their customers.
- hexo 3y agoMaybe they could start paying top management like normal employees.
- blackbear_ 3y agoBut then how are they going to stay motivated and perform to their best??????? /s
- eddiewithzato 3y agoBad leadership always seems to result in heads rolling first before leadership is replaced
- AshleysBrain 3y agoThe CEO did step down already: https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/09/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-unity-ceo-with-former-red-hat-chief-exec-jim-whitehurst-taking-over-for-now https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/09/john-riccitiello-steps-dow...
- Kapura 3y agoCEO John Riccitiello has already lost his job [1] [1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/9/23910441/unity-ceo-president-john-riccitiello-out-retire https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/9/23910441/unity-ceo-presid...
- ehutch79 3y agoHe wasn't the only member of leadership.
- jjoonathan 3y agoI'd be happy to fuck up this badly and get fired for $12M. In fact, I'd do it for $11M! https://www1.salary.com/John-Riccitiello-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-Unity-Software-Inc.html https://www1.salary.com/John-Riccitiello-Salary-Bonus-Stock-...
- ryandrake 3y agoLet's keep the bidding going. I'd do it for $10M!
- kwertyoowiyop 3y ago$9M or I (don’t) walk!
- hamandcheese 3y ago
- BryanLegend 3y agoThey'll probably open source Unity someday. There's not much money in selling dev tools, just ask Borland, Sun, or Microsoft.
- CodeCompost 3y agoAre Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise not profitable? Not bashing just curious. They do give away VS Code and VS Community is free so I guess tgat must cut into profits...
- BryanLegend 3y agoI don't think the dev tools division has ever been profitable. It's always been done to support their platforms & operating systems.
- yodon 3y agoMicrosoft's DevDiv has been a billion dollar a year business for the past 20 years (I know, revenue != profit, but that's a big number to work with)
- whaleofatw2022 3y agoVS community came out right about when small businesses started really jumping onto LAMP/WAMP for LOB apps. Not hard to draw the line from there to 'keeping people on IIS and MSSQL'
- hotnfresh 3y agoNot sure if it was the original plan, but vscode is now a sales vector for SaaS.
- internet101010 3y agoYep. Doing Azure-related things is way easier in VS Code than other IDEs because so much deployment functionality is built in. It's still needlessly convoluted though.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoIf your CEO is a MBA you will have 10% layoffs every year, with hiring happening simultaneously. It is called the vitality curve. They believe that in a given workforce, 10% are non-producers and have to be put in a PIP or laid off. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve These layoffs usually happen at the same time during the year.
- horns4lyfe 3y ago[flagged]
- 29athrowaway 3y ago[flagged]
- bitcharmer 3y agoYup, and I find it incredible that seemingly very intelligent people make absolutely insane decisions like this. Is this short-term greed that makes MBAs do dumb stuff?
- 29athrowaway 3y agoMBAs do not use the scientific method. They do whatever has worked before even if the understanding of how it worked is incorrect.
- peterclary 3y agoIn other words, they keep cargo-culting it, claiming responsibility for the wins and blaming staff, the economy, etc. for the losses.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoYes. That is why AI will outperform them.
- Cypher 3y agoI've been finding it challenging to get a new job this year.. it's been painful with all the layoffs and increased competition. Jobs coming through now are reduced on salary too :(
- kemiller2002 3y agoWhat type of job are you looking for?
- kaladin_1 3y agoFull stack developer here. I concur with parent. I would even add that companies willing to take distant remote has drastically reduced.
- gumballindie 3y agoTech has become the type of job where people are ordered to abandon family and friends to keep insecure management happy by relocating closer to offices. Not a viable career if you want a life.
- taylodl 3y agoHave you ever looked at a career in medicine or national defense? If your job is actually important to the functioning of modern civilization then you should expect sacrifices. If your job is just a cash grab and nothing is impacted whether you do your job or not then I suggest you re-evaluate what's important in your life.
- gumballindie 3y agoYes, those people earn far more than software workers. Perhaps not early in their career but over time they do. Are you actually the type that tells an employer that “money isnt everything” while that employer splashes on things such as you know a home and a family, working from home, while you’re ordered back to an office?
- zx8080 3y ago> layoffs despite increased revenue Why despite? Layoffs are here for more profit!
- saidinesh5 3y agomore short term profit...
- zx8080 3y agoFiring some could also bring a long-term profit.
- mh- 3y agoUnity lost $921M in 2022.
- gumballindie 3y ago> reduce our office footprint Haven't these geniuses ordered their workers back into offices?
- Eumenes 3y agoCrap article. Doesn't state how many layoffs, from which business/product unit, etc. Par for the course from gaming industry news which tend to focus less on gaming, and more on executive pay, unionization, identity politics in gaming, etc.
- kwertyoowiyop 3y ago“Clickbait”
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- munk-a 3y agoAt least they laid off the CEO that nearly managed to torpedo the entire product.
- BearOso 3y agoI'm of the opinion he was a scapegoat to draw the ire of the decision. The board were going to try to make that change anyway. If it went well enough that they didn't have to fire him, they'd still have him as a buffer for another unpopular change.
- munk-a 3y agoI think it's fair to target the board with a large amount of blame as well - but as CEO it's your responsibility... if the decision is going to torpedo the company then refuse to carry it out or leave.
- s_dev 3y agoI'm of the opinion it was his idea, he convinced the board it would be a change with some pushback but he'd get it across the line. He has a history of these changes (he worked at EA Games previously) while the board do not have a history of these changes. Thus I'm prepared to give the board the benefit of the doubt here and it was the board alone who could oust the CEO which they did so there are some small redeeming qualities here.
- duped 3y agoBoards don't make decisions, the executives do.
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- myth_drannon 3y agoIn 2021 they spent $1.6B to buy WetaDigital (founded by Peter Jackson among others)
- _fizz_buzz_ 3y agoIt says they made a loss of $125 million this past quarter. That would have been fine a couple of years ago, when interest was zero and cash basically free. This is not ok in 2023 (and actually most points in history).
- daft_pink 3y agoSuch a misleading headline, "despite... ...reduced losses". The Unity Corporation is a machine that literally vaporizes money. They need to find a way to profitability. Reduced losses aren't good enough. Layoffs should not be shocking. This is not an example of a company making tons of $'s and then laying off people. Anyone who wants to use Unity long term should be supportive of them achieving profitability, because the current position is not sustainable.
- lamontcg 3y agoUnity is a good "poster boy" for the unprofitable, bloated, economic value destroying tech company that was created in a ZIRP environment. Many of these companies should start going bankrupt before too long as their debt hits their maturity dates and their interest expenses balloon. And to try to survive they will have to aggressively cut R&D and SG&A. And as everyone cuts those budgets it will impact the revenues of who they do business with (and Unity's customers will similarly be doing the same thing, with fewer developers needing licenses and fewer games being sold due to less disposable income in the consumers). The FAANG layoffs that we had over the past year or so weren't the real tech recession, that's still to come.
- TheCleric 3y agoSlightly off topic, but for those unhappy with Unity, I highly recommend Godot: https://godotengine.org/ https://godotengine.org/ It's open source and constantly improving. It's missing some features from Unity, but it's still highly capable.
- bentt 3y agoBeen a Unity developer for years. Was shocked and dismayed by the runtime fee announcement debacle. Was pleased at the result with JR leaving. The new CEO seems okay so far. I'd initially though of him as a hatchet man who will let the next CEO come in with clean hands, but maybe not. He seems to be talking to developers and listening. The company NEEDS to reduce its headcount and its monte carlo solver approach to growth and profitability. They have not made meaningful progress on the Unity Editor in several years. Most pros use the old systems and those that bet their company on the new engine systems pay a heavy price. The amount and variety of debt that has piled up is staggering. They have to start servicing it. So, the company will look like it is bleeding but I honestly think it's about time. It needs an intervention to find a way forward. On this news I bought Unity (U) stock for the first time today. It was a token amount because I want to get insider comms, but I have never considered buying it at all before.
- heroprotagonist 3y agoThey appear to be making themselves more attractive for a sale lately. Do the unpopular stuff in advance, so the new company doesn't get blamed. Change the licensing, optimize revenue, expenses, and head count to make the book look a little better on paper.. Maybe they're heading to a chop-shop soon.
- polski-g 3y agoUnity needs to lay off about 6500 people and replace the remaining 1000 employees with individuals worth about $500k/year. There is nothing comprehensible about employing 7500 people for a software program. How would they even understand the codebase with almost ten thousand developers making changes every day?
- rapsin4 3y agothey're still losing money.. it's inevitable...