Lyft CEO David Risher said the ride-hailing company will significantly cut jobs in another round of layoffs to reduce costs.
The company declined to provide details on the number of affected staff. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the job cut could impact 30 percent of Lyft’s workforce, or more than 4,000 employees.
The decision comes weeks after the newly appointed CEO said Lyft was not for sale, disappointing some investors who had speculated that the exit of the company’s founders would pave the way for a deal and pushed up its stock last month.
Lyft could see costs slashed by half after the layoffs, the WSJ report said.
Lyft will send an email to its employees with details on employment status on April 27, by 8:30 am Pacific Time / 8:30 am local time in Eastern Europe. Lyft is scheduled to report its first quarter 2023 financial results on Thursday, May 4, 2023.
The company in November laid off about 683 employees, or 13 percent of its then workforce, to cut costs and cope with stiff competition from bigger rival Uber Technologies in a tough economy.
Uber and Lyft have been locked in a battle for market share coming off the pandemic lows, and investors worry that Lyft’s price cuts to avoid being a distant second in the North American ride-sharing market would squeeze its profits.
The companies’ last reported results showed that Uber’s global presence and more diversified businesses were giving it an edge over U.S.-focused Lyft.
Last month, Lyft announced co-founder and CEO Logan Green and co-founder and President John Zimmer will transition from their full-time executive management positions into non-executive roles as chair and vice chair of the Lyft board, respectively.
