Google-owned navigation and mapping company Waze will terminate job of 5 percent of its employees, representing about 30 people out of 555.
Waze will shut down several of its offices in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions as it seeks to refocus its business on certain markets, The Verge reported.
“We’ve decided to focus our resources on product improvements for our users, accelerate our investments in technical infrastructure, and refocus our sales and marketing efforts on a small number of high-value countries,” said Waze CEO Noam Bardin in an email addressed to the employees.
Shutdowns in the U.S. retail and hospitality businesses may be an early sign of the job losses that the coronavirus outbreak will inflict on the economy in the United States, New York Times reported in March.
Waze was acquired by Google for about $1.1 billion in 2013. Waze uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, which it shares with other users, offering real-time traffic information.
Of the 30 people receiving pink slips, most are from the company’s sales, marketing, and partnerships divisions.
“We will be closing the on-the-ground Sales offices in Asia Pacific (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia) and smaller LATAM markets (Colombia, Argentina, Chile),” Noam Bardin said.
