Tech

Amazon cuts joint ventures amid push to control costs


Amazon

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Amazon is shutting down more projects, with digital travel experiences and the most recent high-performance robotics system to hit the mark.

That comes after it was announced this month that Amazon would stop testing delivery robots, stop making video equipment for kids and halt hiring for the company’s retail division. Earlier this year, it also said it would end its healthcare venture, Amazon Care.

Now, Amazon has confirmed that it is ending Glow, its video device designed to help kids connect with family, and Explore, its virtual travel experience. It does not confirm or deny that it has ended two robotic projects, Canvas and Orca, or comment on Aqua, the AWS service.

A post on Blind, an anonymous messaging board used by tech workers to talk about job interview, job cuts and office gossip, listing half a dozen projects coming to an end, as well as a final review of Aqua, a product from Amazon Web Services. The post is billed as an updated “decommissioned project” series.

“At Amazon, we think big, experiment and invest in new idea Spokesperson Brad Glasser told The Seattle Times, to please customers.

Amazon declined to comment on how many workers would be affected, but said some employees would move to other areas of the business.

Like many technology companyAmazon has slowed its expansion this year, facing economic pressure following a boom in demand for its services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For now, it has slowed or halted plans to expand warehouse space, including a potential new fulfillment center in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Earlier this year, top Amazon executives signaled that the company would focus on controlling costs and take a more targeted approach to hiring. It also halted construction of new office buildings in Bellevue, which will largely contribute to future Puget Sound development.

Earlier this month, Amazon said it would freeze hiring for the company’s retail division, which includes online and physical stores, a marketplace for third-party sellers, and an Amazon subscription service. Prime.

The company expects to resume hiring for that division next year. A spokesman declined to say how the temporary shutdown would affect its headquarters in Seattle or offices around Puget Sound.

“Amazon continues to have a significant number of open roles across the company,” Glasser said. “We have many different businesses at different stages of development, and we hope to continue to refine our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at different times.”

In July, Google’s parent company Alphabet said it would slow down hiring for the rest of the year; Microsoft cut several jobs in the same month, including its Azure cloud business and security software division; Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said last month it had reduced the number of heads for the first time in Company history.

Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed that it was concluding field trials of the Scout, an automated personal delivery device that has been operating throughout Kirkland to deliver small packages to residents. Amazon is “redirecting the program” after learning that parts of the service “did not meet customer needs,” spokeswoman Alisa Carroll told The Seattle Times last week.

Amazon may now be discontinuing the program altogether, according to an update on Tuesday’s message board.


Report: Amazon freezes hiring on its retail division


2022 Seattle Times.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Quote: Amazon cuts joint ventures amid push for cost control (2022, October 14) retrieved October 16, 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-10-amazon- curtails-ventures.html

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